


Resistance

by theboringdolphin



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Elements of Solangelo, F/F, F/M, M/M, Most definitely Percico, Sexual Content
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-11
Updated: 2016-10-24
Packaged: 2018-03-17 09:37:46
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 10
Words: 83,939
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3524378
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theboringdolphin/pseuds/theboringdolphin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A criminal on the run. A dutiful enforcer with unwavering ideals placed upon him. A community that seems to be the epitome of Utopia. Welcome to Attica, where criminals given a second chance are treated like dogs, society is blind and a madman runs free. Where a rebellion is on the rise and a woman is demented with her ideals. Resistance is futile. Can love bloom in such a place?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Beautiful

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone, here is a new story I'm working on, I really hope you guys like it. Now, I got the idea a long time ago when I read The Giver, when I saw the anime No. 6, when I saw the anime Psycho Pass (especially), when I read Divergent and The Hunger Games. All of it came to me to form this story... a society desperate for a utopian world, for an idealistic place in which crime can be prevented. In which there are no differences, a place where everything is accepted without a fuss. Without war, without hate, a place where we, as humans have come to an understanding and tolerance.
> 
> I know, heavy topic huh?  
> Can utopia really be reached?
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson and The Olympians

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! Yes, this is a new story I've been working on for the past four? five? maybe, months! This story is a bit different... I'd like to think so...
> 
> Now, I got the idea a long time ago when I read The Giver, when I saw the anime No. 6, when I saw the anime Psycho Pass (especially), when I read Divergent and The Hunger Games. All of it came to me to form this story... a society desperate for a utopian world, for an idealistic place in which crime can be prevented. In which there are no differences, a place where everything is accepted without a fuss. Without war, without hate, a place where we, as humans have come to an understanding and tolerance.
> 
> I know, heavy topic huh?
> 
> Can utopia really be reached?
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson and The Olympians

 

_Beautiful_

Porcelain skin.

Ebony hair, as dark as night itself.

I watched him, from afar in this train made of metal.

Beautiful.

That one word, was the only word I could think of. He truly was beautiful. Looking at him, it was mesmerizing even. The way he captured my attention from the moment I was put in this train to be transported to hell, he was entrancing. He was hypnotizing. Never did I ever think with all of my bad luck, that I would ever find someone like him. Well, at least not again... I never thought I would get a second chance.

It was an anomaly in the grand scheme of things- because he did his best to blend in with _us_. Us being the _prisoners_ \- although we're not exactly called that yet. No, we're called _latent criminals_. That's what we are... _criminals_. We did things to warrant our arrest and to be transported to the place where no one in the comfy and lavish community knew about. A place where keeping your sanity is your priority. It was always something to be discussed, to keep in check your mind and emotions, because they were a dangerous thing.

But currently, my mind was focused on something else or rather someone else. I just couldn't keep my eyes off of him. What was it about him that made it so hard to ignore? The more I looked at him, the more I found myself wanting to get closer to him. To talk to him, get to know his story. What he did to get here. He was wearing normal clothing, so that ruled out my interest in his attire. Normal black pants, and a normal white t-shirt, with normal black shoes. Nothing about his clothes caught my attention. It was just him. I sighed once, and looked down. Trying to build up my courage to go over there and talk to him. Unfortunately, my nerves got the best of me and I stayed glued to my seat. I looked around the room and saw the guards, dressed in their black clothing, with their weapons in position to fire if someone stepped out of line.

They were stationed at the doors, blocking all forms of escape. It would've been idiotic if someone were to do that anyway. They would find you in less than a day, and by then, well you'd be less fortunate. We were allowed to move around so long as we didn't cause trouble. I saw a few criminals, a mix of both men and women all around the train. Some were sitting others were standing, some were chatting nervously while others sat quietly, you could see the fear in everyone's eyes.

My eyes flickered back up and I found myself staring straight into his dark brown eyes, that seemed abysmal. He stared at me, his face devoid of any emotion, eyes dull, and I felt my cheeks fill with color as he kept looking at me. Then he looked away, but I found myself unable to move, let alone breath.

"You're staring." I heard a feminine voice whisper lowly to me. I looked to my right and there was this girl sitting beside me, studying me intently. My mouth felt dry, and I found myself unable to speak. She smiled softly at me. "It's okay to stare. He is rather pretty looking- for a boy."

I felt myself blush as she bluntly stated what I had been thinking. But he was more than pretty.

"I'd say he is beautiful." My mouth moved of its own accord.

"Mm," her smile grew as she looked at me, her eyes sparkling. I couldn't exactly pinpoint their exact color, they kept changing. "My name is Piper McLean."

"I'm Percy Jackson." I introduced myself to the girl, Piper.

She had brown, chestnut hair, that was cut to look choppy with a stray braid or two done randomly and a blue feather stuck on her head. Her skin was tan maybe a bit darker than tan actually and her eyes were like a kaleidoscope, shifting from different colors depending on the light. She was extremely pretty I'll admit, but never as gorgeous as the boy with porcelain skin.

"What are you in for?" she asked me, polite enough so as not to make me feel uncomfortable. Nonetheless, I still made a face, not wanting to talk about it. "I see... you're not a talker, well I'm in here because a club was raided and they caught me. They also caught my friend there," she pointed to a Latino boy, with black curly hair, wild and untamed. He had light brown eyes that danced with mischief and a smirk that told anyone who gave him a glance that he was up to no good, but I already knew him. I had bought something off of him three years ago... something that helped me stay hidden for this long...

"Leo Valdez," we both said at the same time, and she looked over at me, an eyebrow raised up, surprise on her face. She quickly composed herself and merely gave me a shrug.

"Well, seems like you know him... but of course the Enforcers had been trying tirelessly to capture Leo for some time now." She shook her head as a small smile dared to play on her lips. "He's a fairly good friend of mine."

"Yes, I know him. He sells technology on the black market... well he used to sell technology on the black market, what with his capture. Why were you in a club?"

Her lips tilted up minutely as she looked at me, and I realized it was pretty daring of me to ask her that question. It was really me being nosy because I hadn't even answered her question.

Piper's lips quirked up as she answered my question anyway. "Well, I was part of a band of revolutionaries that had been trying to open the eyes of the public. My friends Silena Beauregard, Clarisse La Rue, and Adam Fernandez over there were also caught alongside me."

I looked to see where she had pointed. A girl, with long, straight, brunette hair and big blue eyes, peach skin and a slim figure was sitting. She was incredibly pretty, and I couldn't believe that she was part of a revolutionary group. She was sitting to next a girl, with red-brown wavy hair, mean looking brown eyes and a scowl that seemed permanently etched on her face. And then, behind the two girls sat a boy, about my age with light brown hair and dark brown eyes, he was lean yet with a bit of a muscular build. He looked at ease, almost a bit serene considering where we were all heading to. I looked back to the boy with eyes like dark chocolate as he looked outside the window with dull eyes, and I began to wonder what his name was, what he had done, what kind of story he had to tell. Was it possible to fall in love at first sight? Did that even exist anymore? Especially with the way things were run in Attica... Did I really just fall in love? Again? Was it possible to get a second chance at love?

I shook my head to get out of my musings and looked away, it would be best to do it now and not have him catch me looking at him. God, how embarrassing would that be. I briefly wondered how much time had passed... we had been riding this train for a good 30 minutes. We had been taken from the underground cell we had been placed in, all 150 of us prisoners being transported to a place called _Attica Annex Correctional Facility_. At least that was what the Enforcers told us when they captured us. I wondered how far this place was.

Slowly, my eyes started to droop, and I felt extremely tired. I figured a small nap wouldn't hurt.

"Hey, are you tired?" Piper's voice shook me awake just a bit.

"A bit, I haven't slept in since yesterday..." I trailed off. Yesterday... had been the day I was captured. The look of disgust on the Enforcer's face...

"You can sleep a bit if you want? From what I've found out, we're going to be on this train for another good three hours." Piper told me. "You can sleep, I'll wake you when we get near to our own little hell."

I looked at her for awhile, wondering why she was being so nice to me and how calm she was considering we were going to prison.

"Thank you," I settled for a smile. She returned it.

I sat lower in my seat, let my head fall against the window and slowly went to sleep.

...

"Mom! I'm home!" I called out to my mother.

Sally Jackson, a beautiful woman, married to Poseidon Jackson, a handsome man. People said I may have looked like my father, but I had gotten most of my mother's traits and personality. My mother was playful and kind. She was compassionate and a bit of a rebel. It wasn't a mystery that my father had fallen in love with her. She had dark brown-black hair, with blue eyes, a slim figure and a dazzling smile. My father was a bit of a mischievous man, a man who was playful and fun yet stern when need be. I hadn't always been the perfect child. Like my father I was a mischievous boy at heart, but like my mother I often thought of others. My father had black, windswept hair, tan skin that seemed to be bathed in sunlight on a daily basis, and a muscular build. But his most prominent and probably most memorable features were his eyes, which I had inherited. Sea green eyes that seemed to hold the ocean in them.

"Hey mom! I'm home and I'm super hungry!" I called out to my mother. I was 18 years old again, coming home from my first day at college. I walked through my old yet familiar house. The memories flooded back from the recesses of my mind.

The old house. Well, it was more modern than the houses from outside Attica, or so I was told before, but a bit dated compared to the ones inside the community. On the outside, it was brick, reddish brown brick. The door was oak with a small window in the center made of stained glass, of red, white and yellow. There was a huge window off to the side near the door, that had an amazing view of this park where a big lake lay. The house was three stories tall. Once the door opened up, you were greeted with the living room, that was painted orange and yellow and red, warm colors chosen by my mother who with my father's help decorated the room. There was a huge couch that was a light coffee brown color, and a love seat on one side of the room that matched, along with a single armchair. The TV was propped up against the wall, with the DVD and cable box underneath and off to the side on a shelf were movies.

My little brother, Tyson Jackson, had toys scattered here and there on the wooden floors. I walked on through the house, throwing my book bag on the armchair. My mother would scold me later. I came upon the dinning room next, where a huge wooden table with white chairs stood. I walked on, coming into the kitchen. With its granite counters and the island that stood in the middle. The stove was steel along with the fridge, and in the oven, I smelled cookies cooking. My mother's famous blue chocolate chip cookies that I loved so much. I went past the kitchen to the stairs that led to the bedrooms.

As I climbed the stairs, a feeling of dread worked it's way inside me. Somehow I felt uneasy and I finally realized my house hadn't greeted me when I first walked in through the door. I ran up the stairs and stopped near the touch screen panel off to the side that was put there so that every family member per household could touch the screen and out would pop an injection that would help one get through their day. I knew exactly what these injections did to a person... I saw the panel and saw that it was on but it hadn't greeted me at all. I found that strange and the uneasy feeling in my gut only got worse the closer I got to the bedrooms.

As I walked on, I looked down and my mother's beautiful wooden floors were stained in a dark red substance. A trail of this dark red substance kept going on into my brother's bedroom. I was confused as to why there was this... paint? On my mother's floor. It hadn't fully registered in my mind what this was exactly. The closer I got, the more of this I saw and suddenly I was at my brothers door. Slowly I opened it... on my brother's bed, I saw him. Tyson. Sweet, small Tyson. With big blue eyes and a kind smile. Who would always ask far too many questions and was a complete ball of sunshine. On his bed... his bloody bed... with his limbs chopped off. His head was ripped off his shoulders and propped on top of the bed post. A scream was ripped from my throat and before I knew it, I was running out of the room.

_"Mom!"_

I ran into my mother's bedroom and I saw my mother and father, nailed to the wall. A knife was embedded in my mother's head. My father's throat was slashed, blood flowing down.

_"No. No. No! NO! NO!"_

My knees bucked and I fell down.

My parent's bodies were mangled and bloody and twisted so horrifically. My beautiful mother, my strong father, my sweet, innocent brother... all dead.

**"Percy Jackson,"** the robotic voice of my house spoke, although it sounded a bit different, **"you have killed your family. My duty is to hold you here until the Enforcers arrive."**

"What _no,_ Anna, I didn't _m-murder_ them! Someone else did! _I didn't murder my family!_ Please Anna listen!"

**"My duty is to hold you, until the Enforcers arrive. Murder is a serious crime in Attica. Attica is safe. Attica is secure. Attica is controlled."** Anna spoke in her robotic, monotone voice.

"I-I... I gotta go... _I gotta leave..._ I gotta hide... w-where am I... _where am I gonna go?!_ " I turned around in a full circle, raking my hands through my hair. I ran to the door and tried to open it only to find I was locked on the inside. I ran to the window and found the same thing. The glass had been changed so that it was unbreakable now.

" _Anna!_ Let me out! I _didn't_ kill my mom, my dad, my little _brother_!" My voice cracked at the end.

Tyson would never be able to live out his life. He died at 8 years of age. My mother would never be with me. She was taken too early from me. My father was no longer the strong man he was. I would no longer see that mischievous smirk that would play on his face, so similar to mine own.

**"You are to remain still Percy Jackson. Your psycho hue is well above 200. If it does not lower, I will have to use the Stinger. Percy Jackson, your hue is cloudy. A cloudy psycho stat could be dangerous to the outside world."**

"Shut up! Anna shut up! Shut up! _Shut the fuck up!_ "

**"Your psycho hue is 247. And my scanner is picking up anger, confusion, frustration, sadness and hostility. Please stay put. The Enforcers are wel-we-well it- the- Enforcers-Enforc- on the way- wa-w-way..."**

I looked back at Anna and realized the panel was short circuiting. Anna was slowly shutting down. And I didn't know why. Soon enough, I heard the door unlock and open just a crack.

_'Should I run? Or should I stay put and see if I can try to convince them I hadn't murdered my family. What should I do? The Enforcers were well on their way... if I ran... I would be a wanted criminal... what should I do?'_

I had money saved up from various jobs I had done from two years ago. I had close to $3,900 I could probably make it if I ran but... what if I stayed?

"If you stay, you're an even bigger fool than I thought," a sudden voice appeared. A voice I would come to know so well... a voice that would haunt me in my sleep, in my dreams, in every moment of my life. A voice that sounded smooth, so smooth and crystal clear. A voice that sounded cruel and... bored? It sounded bored, almost tired that it was doing this.

"Honestly, here I am giving you another chance to escape." The voice laughed, no, it mocked. "And you're being the ultimate idiot by staying!"

"W-who are you?!" I shouted.

His laughed turned more evil, if that was even possible. "I'm the man who killed your family. And you can't prove your innocence because I've made sure that your prints and DNA are all over the place. So it looks like you've killed them. You've got ten minutes to make up your mind."

I was frozen to the spot, my mind couldn't comprehend what he had just said. He killed... my family... and framed me? No. No. It wasn't possible. I- no! My mom, my dad, Tyson! Dead! And... he killed them.

Ten minutes. I had ten minutes to decide. Should I run? What would happen to me if I ran?

_"James."_

That name. And that voice. That sweet, melodious voice. I never thought I would ever hear it again. Yet here I heard it. Forever imprinted in my mind.

_"James."_

The light lilt, the small giggle, the breathy laugh. All from one beautiful girl.

_"James."_

Daniela. Danny.

"Percy!"

My eyes opened abruptly and the bright fluorescent light that streamed down shocked me, making me close my eyes fast.

"You're sweating. So much. Are you okay?" I heard Piper's voice, concern lacing her words.

A sharp intake of breath, I opened up my eyes, my chest heaving. I looked at the girl beside me and slowly nodded my head.

"Y-yeah..." my voice trembled and I hated it. "I'm- fine."

Piper studied me before she nodded once. "Well... we're almost there."

"Uh, okay... thanks for waking me up."

"Yeah."

The prison came into view then. A dull, gray building, made of concrete. The train started to slow down, and the guards started to order everyone to sit down in an orderly fashion. A big, huge iron gate, about 50 feet tall opened up to let the train through. Once we passed, I saw them close. Forever trapping us inside. I suddenly felt suffocated, claustrophobic. As if I were going to be trapped under a tomb. My heart sped up, my pulse quickening and I felt myself go into shock. Suddenly, for the first time, I felt the reality of my situation fully sink in. I would stay here, never to see the outside world again, never to feel the things I felt after I stopped taking those injections, never to... be free again.

**"Everyone please stand up,"** Anna's voice filtered through the speakers of the train. **"You will be given a set of numbers, all of you are to leave the train in two lines; one for men and one for women. Once You reach the front of the building, you will all be lead into a room where you will be asked to take a test."**

My lips tilted down and my eyebrows furrowed. A test? What test? For what reason? Everyone got up as soon as the train came to a stop.

"Good luck." Piper whispered to me before being led out.

As we moved out of the train and across the walk-way to the dull building, I found myself frantically searching for the boy with pale skin, but I didn't see him anywhere.

"Keep it moving, scum!" I'm pushed forward roughly by a guard.

Biting my tongue I move along, but my eyes keep looking for skin that's pale white and beautiful brown eyes.

We come to a stop in front of a set of double doors made of glass. A woman with black hair and brown eyes stood next to a guy with blond, curly hair and blue eyes. The woman seems familiar... like I've seen her before but- where?

"Welcome prisoners. My name is Rose, I'm an Enforcer and this man next to me is Will. We are here to take you to the testing rooms, where you are to take a mandatory exam. I will take the men, Will will take the women."

We followed the two Enforcers inside, the double doors slid open and once in, there were even more guards, more Enforcers and prisoners going to and fro. We follow the Enforcers and turn a corner, going left where we reach a door. Same as the double doors, made of glass and it opens up. We walk through where we reach this white, sterile room. Sort of like a hospital room except it's possibly a lot more cleaner and there are no medical machines. There are chairs, so many chairs with a weird thing that seems big enough for a head to fit, hanging on in the back of the chair. The room itself is huge and wide and... just plain gigantic.

"Ladies! Follow me through his door!" The blond known as Will calls out. There seems to be more men than women. Out of the 150 people, since the women left, there are at least 100 men left, meaning there were only 50 women on that train. I look back at the woman, known as Rose and a memory starts to tug at the back of my mind. She looks way too familiar and it's bothering me that I can't seem to remember her.

"Excuse me, but what's this test for?" A blond with a scar running from the bottom of his left eye to just above his lip asks Rose, a scowl on his face.

"It's to see if... some of you have this special ability that we might use or need..."

"What ability? And how would you use it?" Leo asked Rose.

"Well, it's not exactly an ability more like... a way into seeing how your mind works..."

"Why?" The same blond guy with the scar asked once more.

"Well, those who pass... you'll find out soon enough. Now, get in the chairs."

I was amazed the Enforcer didn't snap at us for asking her questions, let alone she answered them. Enforcers weren't known to be kind to us criminals... so it was no wonder neither of us put up a fight when she told us to get in the chair.

"Now, you won't be harmed or anything of the sort. But you won't be awake for the test either." Once we sat down, the straps around the chair tightened around us, making it impossible to get out.

"What? But how would we take the test?" Another blond curly haired, blue eyed man asked. He reminded me of that Enforcer... Will... just a bit.

"As I said, this is to see how your mind works. The questions asked will make you question your motives, your sanity, what you've been taught to think is right and the ideals placed upon you. If you're aware of this, well, your answers would certainly differ so that in our eyes you would be perceived as good. But see, we're not exactly looking for that. And to get straight answers, you need to do things just a bit... differently." The white machines that were attached to the back of the chair moved forward until it covered our heads entirely.

"Good luck." That was the last thing I heard before everything went black.

The woman, Rose. I realized now she has a small mole, right under in the corner of her left eye... just like her...

...

"James."

Danny?

"I love you, my dear." My mind takes me back to my old apartment. There I see a head of beautiful pink hair. Pink hair. Peculiar isn't it? Pink hair and beautiful blue eyes. Daniela. Danny. My beautiful girl.

"James, once your birthday comes, we'll celebrate! Won't it be fun?!" Danny went in to the kitchen. "All of our friends and food and-"

I snuck up behind her and wound my arms around her curvy figure. She was short, standing at 5'5, but she was tough as nails sweet as sugar.

"Love?" I nuzzle my face in the back of her neck and I feel the small shiver that runs down her spine.

"James..." her voice is breathy, "you know what that does to me..."

"Come on, it's Sunday and it's 12 in the afternoon and I think it's far too early to be up."

"James!" Danny squeals as I drag her to the bedroom. Our bedroom.

I pin Danny to the wall and kiss her roughly. I bite her bottom lip softly and she opens her mouth, letting me in to explore her. She tastes like apples and cinnamon, and her smell is intoxicating. Slowly, I begin to undress her. I start to take off her yellow dress, and it falls down to the floor with a small thud. I cup her tender breasts and start to play with them. I pinch her softly and I hear a breathy moan escape her mouth.

"Mmm, Percy..."

My hands freeze. She's never called me _Percy_ before. She never knew about _Percy Jackson._

I look up and I see her face. Her once beautiful face, skinless. All I see is a skull with hollow sockets for eyes.

"What's the matter James? Don't you love me anymore? Why'd you kill me Percy? Why did you kill me? Why did you kill me? _WHY DID YOU KILL ME?!_ "

My eyes fly open and a bright light is the first thing I see. Rose is standing over me, studying me intently and I have no idea what I did. I look around me and see I'm the only one with the machine over my head.

"W-what just happened?" I ask, I see my hand trembling slightly and Rose takes notice as well. I hide my hand and look at the Enforcer in the eyes.

Rose is so familiar to her... the one Enforcer who had a kind soul... the one who let me go...

Even the small mole in the corner of her left eye... she had that too.

"You're done taking the test." Rose finally speaks up. I can hear a bit of an accent lacing her words. "Here, put this on your shirt."

She hands me a green tag that I stick on my shirt. On it are a bunch of numbers saying _34519_ and with a green bar across under the number.

"What's this for?" I ask and then bite my tongue. This Enforcer has been nice enough, I really shouldn't push it, especially with my luck.

"You'll find out soon enough once everyone finishes the test and we move to a different room. Don't worry, I think you'll like it once you find out." Rose smiled at me and I couldn't help but smile back, all the while thinking of the Enforcer that let me escape, _Marisol._

Soon, I heard a small beep and on this table that wasn't there before, was a machine. From that machine, out popped a slip of paper and three chairs down from my left the white machine attached to the chair lifted to reveal the blond with blue eyes and a scar running down his face. He moved his head, looking dazed and Rose took the slip of paper and told him to put it on his shirt. The tag had a set of numbers and a green bar underneath.

The process repeated until all of the men woke up and were given a tag. Some had green, but they were very few while the majority of the men had a black bar underneath.

"Okay criminals, we're moving out! Follow me!" Rose leads us all to a different room, three doors down. By the outside, you wouldn't think it would be big enough to hold us all but I was surprised because it held all of the men with Rose and the women that had gone with Will.

"Now then," the blond named Will spoke up, "the ones with the black bar underneath, all of you go with Enforcer Mike. The ones with green, stay put."

The people with the black bar all shuffled out, some of them looking weary while others thought that they probably hit the jackpot or something. It made me wonder what was going on. Out of the 50 girls there were only 13 with the green bars. Piper was among them, as were Clarisse and Silena, a certain blonde with blue eyes that I had seen talking with the blond with the scar. Out of the 100 men only 17 of us had the green bar. Among us were the two blondes, Leo, that guy named Adam and myself.

"The ones in green," Will continued, "are the ones that have passed the test. That number that was given to you will lead you to your partner, an Enforcer. What is this, you ask. It's a second chance at redemption. A second chance to come back in to the community. The test you took to see how your mind worked around a problem helped us decide whether or not you would become a _hound._ Surely, you all know who they are?"

Will waited for us to nod our heads.

The hounds were criminals who had been given a second chance to work under the _AECPC._ They lived under the building and they worked alongside Enforcers but they could never marry and could never fully be part of Attica as before. They were in the system but they were below those that handled garbage. To be a hound... that meant you were expected to kill criminals that had gone off the deep end...

Could I really do that?

"What if we don't want to be hounds?" The blond with the scar asked out loud. He sure had a mouth on him didn't he? Then again, so did I.

"Well, you go to prison, take your injections, take medications to dull you so you become nothing more than a mindless person. Of course the course of action in which we handle you in prison goes according to the crime you did..." Rose lets that hang in the air. "But think of it this way Luke, if you chose to become a hound, you can still play your guitar no problem. And you get to drink actual alcohol..."

So that ruled out my option to not become a hound. If I didn't forget ever thinking ever again.

"Now then, Rose will take 15 of you and I'll take the other 15. Fifteen of you will be going to Tribeka, our sister community and train to become hounds over there, the other half, Rose will take you outside where you will meet most of your partners and then be put on a train where you'll be transported not far from here to train for one month and become a hound. Good luck." With that, Will gathered his fifteen people that had an extra bar with a purple color I hadn't noticed before and led them out.

"Okay, let's go." Rose turned and let us out the way we came in.

We passed by many doors, some of which were glass and I could see through them but others were pitch black. Everything was metal and shiny. Metal stairs that spiraled and led up to probably offices, had Enforcers and then normal looking people going up and down. I saw two people wearing lab coats carrying lunch go through a pitch black door. I wondered if they were doctors.

"Now then, once outside, I will call out your name and number and you will meet your partner." Rose spoke.

The more I heard her voice, the more it sounded like Marisol to me. I couldn't help but wonder what happened to that girl... she helped me escape and I still don't what happened. Did she get caught? Did she not? If it became known what she did, what happened to her? All of these questions swimming through my head and I just... I couldn't get her out because I saw Rose and then I saw Marisol.

_I ran. I ran like hell. I grabbed my book bag._

_Ten minutes he said._ He _said._

_I stuffed two pairs of pants, three pairs of shirts and four pairs of underwear. I looked at my clock._

_Now I had five minutes._

_I had stayed down on my knees like an idiot and wasted two minutes that I needed to get out._

_There was now way now I would ever be able to prove my innocence._

_I had to run._

_I opened my safe and grabbed the rolls of cash I had been saving and put it inside my bag. I went past my parent's room and closed the door. I stopped by Tyson's room._

_"I'm sorry... I'm sorry little bro but... I gotta leave."_

_Tears ran down my face as I bolted down the stairs and out through the back door._

_I crossed the road, not caring that it was a green light but unfortunately I didn't see that it was the Enforcer's cars._

_"Stop! Percy Jackson stop where you're going and put your hands up!"_

_I ran across the side walk as they gave chase on both foot and car. I looked behind me to see three guys in suits with their guns pointed at me._

_The hounds._

_I turned a corner and ran down until I came upon an alley way. I jogged down the alley and came across an opening for a sewer pipe. Slowly I opened it, it seemed like it took forever because the lid was so heavy but once it came out I went down the steps and put the lid back on. I climbed down until I hit the floor, making a splash and wetting my feet and the bottom of my jeans._

_This was it. I was a wanted criminal on the run. All because they thought I killed my family._

_I ran, not knowing where I was going. Not knowing what I was going to do. How I was going to survive, to hide. I felt hopeless and I felt angry. I felt sorrow. My family was taken from me by a man who's face was unidentifiable and the blame was put on me._

_"You there! Stop!" I heard a voice behind me._

_I turned around and saw a girl with black hair and dark brown eyes. She was wearing the uniform of an Enforcer and held her gun in position._

_"P-please... don't shoot." I plead with her._

_"T-they're looking for you... Percy Jackson. Stay put, more Enforcers are on their way!" The girl seemed terrified._

_"Wait! Please wait! Just- just wait! I'm innocent! I swear! I didn't kill my family... I- I didn't kill them- I..." my voice cracked as more tears flowed down my face, my legs gave out and I fell on my knees._

_This was it. I would be captured and probably killed. I would die and everyone would think I was responsible for the deaths of my mom, my dad, and my little brother._

_I guess she must've seen how pathetic I looked because she lowered her gun._

_"I- I don't know why... or how... but somehow I feel that you're telling the truth..."_

_I look at her, shock evident on my face._

_"Go. Run!"_

_I stay glued to my spot until she comes closer and shakes me. I look her right in the eyes. And there's a small mole on the corner under her left eye._

_"W-what?"_

_"Run! Go! Leave! Address 215 Palisade Avenue right next to this deli, Gio's Deli, there's a boy named Leo Valdez. He can help you hide and create a new life but you must go now! Run!"_

_I get up on shaky legs and turn to leave only to look back._

_"Wait! Wh-what's your name? I gotta know your name please! You saved me, I can't forget you."_

_The Enforcer looked unsure and hesitated._

_"Please." I plead with her._

_"M-Marisol."_

"Hey," I tap Rose's shoulder and hope I didn't just step out of line. But Rose just looks back at me, a single eyebrow raised.

"Yes?"

"I-is there a girl... an Enforcer named... Marisol?"

Rose's eyes widen for one second before she composes herself.

"No. There was never an Enforcer named Marisol."

"A-are you sure? I mean... it's just..."

"Percy, Marisol isn't in the system. She doesn't exist."

I ponder what Rose has just said to me and I can't help but feel that something is rather odd about her answer. I look to my right and see Adam studying me intently, as if my conversation with Rose interested him but... why?

We're outside of the building and a train like the one that transported us before, except this one is smaller waits for us.

"Now then," Rose speaks up, "I'll call out your name and number and the Enforcer that recognizes the number will step forward and that's your partner. Apollo Solace; number _98762_ you're with Enforcer Thalia Grace."

A girl with bright, electric blue eyes, black hair cut in a pixie style with a single blue streak going down her side bangs, fair skin with a bit of freckles and short of height steps up. The blond named Apollo steps up and walks towards her. He's got blond curly hair, a muscular build and bright blue eyes. He was the one that reminded me of Will.

"Piper McLean; number _14568,_ you're with Annabeth Chase."

A blonde, pretty girl with long, bouncy curls and stormy gray eyes steps up and Piper makes her way to her.

"Clarisse La Rue; number _13986,_ you're with Chris Rodriguez."

A guy with a lean frame, brown hair and light brown eyes steps forward and Clarisse makes her way towards him, a scowl on her face.

"Leo Valdez; number _13894,_ you're with Jason Grace."

Grace, the same name as the other girl, were they siblings? A blond with blue eyes and tan skin and a small scar on his upper lip stepped up. Leo made his way over to him and I noticed how small Leo looked compared to Jason, especially since Jason was muscular.

"Silena Beauregard; number _16345,_ you're with Charles Beckendorf."

"Call me Beckendorf though." A guy who was African American with light brown hair and light brown eyes, a very muscular build, as if he played football and tall stature stepped up.

"Amber Lockser; number _21346,_ you're with Will Solace."

"And I'm here." Will suddenly appeared behind us and Amber followed.

Amber was a girl with straight long, golden blonde hair, it showered her back like a curtain and baby blue eyes with peach skin.

"Adam Fernandez; number _23681,_ you're with Reyna Avila Rameriz-Arellano."

"Quite the reunion huh, sis?" Adam said as he passed by Rose and walked towards a girl with dark chestnut brown hair, dark brown eyes and a fit build.

"Luke Castellan; number _13418,_ you're with me." Rose said. "And finally, Percy Jackson; number _34519,_ you're with Nico di Angelo."

I looked up and saw the beautiful boy I had fallen in love with in the train. At first I was relieved... to see he was fine, alright and not hurt. But then, it sunk in that _he_ was an _Enforcer._

His dark brown eyes that had been so dull on the train looked at me, in disgust. A horrible scowl marred his beautiful features. He looked down at me and his brown eyes regarded me coldly.

No, it couldn't be. This couldn't be the beautiful boy I fell in love with, right? This man in front of me was a double... he had to be. How could that beautiful face make such a horrible look of pure disgust. Those dark brown eyes that had seemed warm made me want to look away.

He didn't even know me and here he was judging me. And I hated him. I hated him because in his eyes, I was seen as nothing other than scum.

His dark brown eyes that I had found so beautiful and now were nothing but ugly pools of mud, looked down on me.

The message was clear as day.

_Welcome to hell you sea green eyed killer._

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AACF- Attica Annex Correctional Facility
> 
> Criminals are transported through a special train with Enforcers on board, some disguised as criminals.
> 
> ACE- Attica Crime Enforcers
> 
> They're the police, the ones who keep everything in order with the help of the hounds.
> 
> AECPC- Attica Enforcer Corporation & Patrol Center
> 
> The building where Enforcers and Patrols work, take on missions, work on cases, sort of like a police station in our world.
> 
> AATO System or Anna- Attica Alpha Tribeka Omega
> 
> The system that was placed in both the community of Attica and Tribeka when these two communities were given the go. These communities were founded by Gaea, 30 years ago and are still in testing mode. People across America were invited, welcomed to come in and start life anew in this community where everything was tolerated and everyone was accepted. Anna was created by Gaea and a group of scientist, she works all around Attica and Tribeka, acting as the command system that powers the community. Anna chooses a list of jobs to present to a person after they graduate high school so that a person could narrow down their focus into certain categories while attending college. Once out of a college, Anna has a job space open for the graduate.
> 
> Tribeka
> 
> The sister community run by Atlas, Gaea's right hand man. Just like Attica, Tribeka is run peacefully, worry-free.
> 
> In both Attica and Tribeka, everything is safe!
> 
> Let's learn about the Enforcers...
> 
> Enforcers and Hounds have a bracelet or wristband that can read a person's psycho stat or hue.
> 
> Hounds are the criminals or latent criminals who work under the Enforcers. They were caught doing something illegal or were charged, they took a test before entering the AACF and based on that test were sent to the branch of the AACF where they train for a month to become hounds. Hounds do the dirty work; i.e killing a person instead of making the Enforcer do it since their psycho hue is already damaged. They live with the Enforcer they are partnered up with for three years until they are deemed trustworthy enough to live on their under own under the AECPC building.
> 
> TG- Transform Gun
> 
> It's connected to the bracelet/wristband and whatever number of a person's hue/stat the wristband/bracelet reads, the TG will transform to the appropriate mode to take down the person, who is a danger to the community.
> 
> Stun- to stun a person who's psycho stat is between 100-200 for 30 minutes until they can be detained and brought to therapy as recommended by Anna.
> 
> Sting- shoots an electric sting so strong a person blacks out because of the pain. Only to be used on a person with the psycho hue of 200-300
> 
> Doom- only to be used for a person who is beyond help, with the psycho stat of 300 and up. It will kill the person, a blue orb that once contact with a person's body will blow up the body. Only the hounds use this mode.


	2. Sea Green Eyed Killer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone, thank you so much for reading.   
> Now, POVs will change from Percy's to Nico's to whomever's I feel needs to tell the story to help it move along. Of course, I will try to make it obvious as to who's POV it is.   
> Another thing, as the story progresses, I might need to up the rating a bit and make it explicit, you'll find out why as the story progresses but this is just a heads up. Thanks again for reading.

_Sea Green Eyed Killer_

Disgusting. Horrible. Unclean. Psycho.

Damn killer.

With his pathetic green eyes.

I get a damn killer as my dog.

Fucking perfect.

Percy Jackson. The one who murdered his mother, his father, his eight year old brother. Jason got a guy who sold tech on the black market. Reyna got a guy who forged fake documents. Will got a girl who was in a band illegally. I got a guy who killed his own family. Just my damn luck! Not only did this disgusting human being get a second chance at life when he should be tried for first degree murder, he was qualified to become a hound and actually get to roam the streets of Attica. Sure, he will need to be accompanied by me, but it's like he's walking free after what he did!

Who in their right mind would kill their own family? Who would do such a thing? It was completely... it was a... it's insane! I hate him. I hate Percy Jackson with every fiber of my being. That damn man, who was lucky to have a family... and he kills them! A family. A beautiful family from what the reports had said. He was crazy, insane, psychopathic. He doesn't deserve a second chance. He deserves death, but even then, death would be a sweet release. I see the hounds in training board the train and see the small train start take off. That damn Percy Jackson looked back twice, as if he couldn't believe he what he was seeing, before getting on. My scowl deepened and I turned around, wanting to leave the facility.

It had been a long day. Two days ago, the higher ups had asked me to board the train in disguise, there were some criminals being transported. That was today, and I completed my mission, although I felt sullied. I wanted nothing more than to go home and take a shower.

"There's a helicopter on its way to take us home," Jason said out loud.

"Nice, we'll get home pretty quick then, we won't have to wait for the next train." Will smirked.

"Hey Will, wasn't that your brother there?" Chris asked him.

Will turned to look at him, his lips tilting down. "Yeah, and we also saw Octavian's older brother too."

"Does Octavian know his brother is a hound?" Annabeth spoke up.

"Don't think so." Will shrugged his shoulders.

Soon we heard a loud noise and I looked up to see the helicopter land on the roof.

"Well, let's get going." Rose said as she started to walk back inside.

I still couldn't believe that that killer got a second chance. It wasn't fair. It was wrong. I felt my lips tilt down as we continued to walk. We turned a corner and stopped in front of the elevator. Rose pushed the button and soon, it came down. We all boarded the elevator and Jason pushed the button for the roof. Slowly, we ascended up and I couldn't help the memory that surfaced. A memory that I did not want to remember.

The noises... the sounds...

I still remember how confused I was when I got home from school. I was confused because as I walked closer to my house, I see Enforcers and three ambulances in front of my house. As I got closer, I saw the neighbors outside, standing close, talking to each other.

"Unbelievable! He was such a calm man! He loved his wife, his children... how could he do such a thing?" That was Ms. Betty's voice. She always seemed to make the best cookies.

"Was the boy inside?" Another voice asked.

"No, they say he's at school... poor boy, when he gets home, the emotional pain he's going to feel."

"I'm sure they'll offer him the injection... maybe?"

"That won't erase what the father did..."

"Not to mention, he'll soon have to face  _this_ line of work, I'm not so sure they'll give him the injection. My son, I told you how he became one of the Enforcers... and he-"

"Honestly Elma, the boy's family! The tragedy that occurred and you're talking about your son!"

"Oh Betty, I was just explaining..."

I got closer and closer, my pulse picking up, a cold feeling settling in my stomach. I didn't know why, but something felt off... I saw my house finally come into view. I started to pick up my pace but stopped once I saw the EMTs rolling out in a gurney a body. And then another body. My blood ran cold and I stopped dead in my tracks. This... couldn't be right... I couldn't actually be seeing this, could I? My eyes must be deceiving me... I ran up to the first Enforcer I saw.

"W-what happened? Why are you all in my house? What's going on?" Panic seized me, made me tremble with fear at the answers that the Enforcers were sure to give me.

"Are you Nico di Angelo?" One of them asked me and I nodded my head, confirming the answer.

"There's someone that needs to speak with you. Please, follow me."

So I did, I followed the Enforcer to another car, and there I saw a woman with light brown hair, forest green eyes and fair skin. She was wearing a blank pant suit with a dark green shirt and a black suit jacket over the shirt. I knew her, I had met her a few times. Her and my dad were long time friends. Gaea.

"Hello Nico," she spoke softly, her eyes sad.

"Hello Gaea..." I said, then looked away, a question itching to get out.

"I am... sorry to inform you my dear, but... your mother and sister..." Gaea spoke, getting straight to the point, not even needing my question to tell me what was wrong.

I shook my head, not wanting to hear but knowing I had to.

"Are dead. Killed, by..." her voice faltered, "your father..."

My head snapped up. My father killed my mother and sister? My beautiful mother and sister? Why?

"No... no this is- wrong..." my mouth moved on its own.

"I am so sorry my dear, but... Anna, she- recorded the sounds of struggle- she tried to detain him in the house... my dear, I am so very sorry... my Enforcers are out there, right now looking for him, we will not let him escape. I will do everything I can to find Hades... I will." Gaea said, determination in her voice, knowing she had to be the anchor for the distraught boy.

This couldn't be right. I couldn't seem to wrap my head around the fact that... my own father had killed my mother, the woman he loved, my sister, his own flesh and blood. I couldn't- didn't want to believe it. I just... this was a dream. This had to be a dream.

But this wasn't a dream. It wasn't and I broke down crying in front of Gaea, who offered kind words and a hug as a form of comfort. What sort of comfort could be provided when a person finds out their family had been murdered?

"Nico?" Jason interrupted my memory and brought me back to the present.

"Yes?"

"We've reached the roof, let's go."

I nodded once and followed the rest of my colleagues out to the helicopter. It had been an exhausting day, having to disguise myself as one of those criminals and having to ride with them for four hours, sitting near them. A scowl formed on my face as I boarded the helicopter and sat next to Rose.

She turned to me and smiled a bit before opening her mouth, "I just got word that Gaea wants to see you before you go home."

I groaned lowly but nodded nonetheless, if Gaea wanted to see me, I'd go to her. She had helped me so much after the death of my mother and sister and after my father ran off. She had taken me in as if I had been one of her own; no knew what had happened to Gaea's children, and she had helped me grieve. She was a wonderful person and I would do anything for her.

"Okay, thank you for telling me Rose."

The helicopter took off and we were all given a view of Attica. Down below, I saw people going to and fro, walking, going in to stores, having lunch outside on this beautiful day, in cars probably going to work. School had been let out, so there were kids out, walking home, joking around. The streets below were clean, bare of any trash as all the streets of Attica usually were. At this time, a few stores started to close up while others remained open. Quickly, the helicopter made its way to the AECPC and landed on the roof. We made our way out of the helicopter where an elevator waited for us, inside was an Enforcer, Don, he waited for us to board.

"How was it?" Don asked us as soon as the doors closed.

"Eh, a bit boring." Will shrugged his shoulders.

"Easy for you to say, you didn't have to ride in a train with them." I rolled my eyes at him.

Will looked over at me and gave me a smirk, making my cheeks fill with color. "Well, maybe I can help you... unwind later?" He raised a single eyebrow at me.

"Oh god, get a room you two," Jason made a show of covering his eyes.

"Shut up, Jase, leave them be," Reyna playfully shoved him.

"Although it would be nice if they didn't flirt so openly," Annabeth gave me a pointed look but I saw the smile forming on her face.

"First off, I don't flirt with him out in the open it's him, don't pin this on me." I crossed my arms across my chest.

"Yeah okay, because it's only on Will's end that the attraction's there." Thalia smirked my way.

"Thank you Thals, someone's on my side," Will gave me a smile.

"You guys are like little kids, bickering back and forth," Chris snorted.

"Thank god my stop is here, I can't stand to be near you guys any longer. I'll see you later." I said as soon as the doors opened.

"I'm hurt Nico," Jason feigned sounding hurt.

"So, that's confirming that I am going to be seeing later on?" Will asked me, a single brow raised, a playful smirk on his face.

"Shut up Solace," I rolled my eyes as I got off but I couldn't help the small smile that came across my face.

I made my way to Gaea's secretary, Minerva and saw her typing away furiously.

"Hello Minerva," I tapped her desk softly and she looked up at me. Those intense gray eyes; so similar to Annabeth's and I swear if I didn't know better I would have said Minerva was her mother, regarded me.

"Hello Nico, how was the mission?" She asked politely.

I shrugged my shoulders, "it was alright, I am tired though."

"Well, Gaea is waiting for you, you can go in." Minerva went back to her work at hand.

"Thank you," I said as I made my way to Gaea's office.

I went past these double doors, that were made of glass. They slid open once I came near enough and I went through. Gaea had a huge office that overlooked Attica, the view of the community was amazing. In the center, sat a huge wooden desk, made of oak, dark brown. Off to the side was a lounge chair, black and soft to the touch. On the other side was a shelf full of different drinks. Water, juice, snacks even, all there. Even alcohol, well the synthetic alcohol; in Attica and Tribeka, we weren't allowed to drink actual alcohol nor use drugs, they were banned.

I saw Gaea overlooking the community, a drink in her hand. Gaea had helped me after the death of my mother and sister. She had given me a place to stay so I wouldn't be put in a foster home and she had paid my way in college, once out, she had given praise to the people in the AECPC and because of that, I was given the job of an Enforcer instantly, only having to go to training for three months instead of the mandatory six. Gaea was more than a family friend to me, she  _was_ family.

"Hi Gaea," I say to her, a smile making its way on my face.

She turned to me and gave me a smile of her own, "Nico, my dear, how are you? I bet you're tired, and I won't keep you long, I promise. I just wanted to make sure you were alright."

That made me smile. Gaea was always worried about me. It was endearing, and nice to have someone worry about me, in a motherly way.

"I'm fine, and it's okay. I figured you would want to know how things went on my little job." I strode over to her and sat down on the lounge chair.

"I told you it wouldn't be difficult." Gaea smiled at me as she came over to sit beside me.

"You were right about that, not difficult but pretty exhausting considering I was with them since yesterday." I made a face to which Gaea laughed at.

"Well, did anything interesting happen? Or was it all a big bore?" She sipped more of her drink, a piña colada I guessed from the smell it gave off. And most likely it had no alcohol in it.

I thought back to her question. Did anything interesting happen?

While on board, the only thing that seemed remotely interesting was the fact that that hound, my hound to be specific and I had made eye contact while the train made its way to the facility. It was nothing, but I still remembered the way he looked at me. It was annoying.

"No," I scratched my cheek, "nothing interesting, it was all... pretty boring."

"Well, I'm glad nothing serious happened, now, I'll let you leave. I'm sure you're pretty tired." Gaea brushed some hair away from my face.

"Thank you Gaea, I'll talk to you soon."

I stood up and left her office, I said goodbye to Minerva and rode the elevator all the way down. Once the elevator doors opened, I stepped outside and into the lobby of the AECPC. The floor was black marble and the walls were a light gray color, the doors slide on its own and were metallic. I didn't have anything to do for the day, and there was no work to be done in the office. Annabeth had me do all of my paperwork on time, the girl was very diligent. And so, that left my afternoon free. Well, all the way until around 8:30 when I would be having lunch with Jason, Reyna, and Annabeth. I looked at my wristband; all Enforcers had one, and looked at the time. It read 5:38, I still had a few hours to kill.

I walked out of the building and stepped outside in the fresh air of Attica. It was a nice day out, not too warm but not too cold with a nice and fresh breeze blowing. I started to walk to my apartment which wasn't at all far from here, it was just a block away. My thoughts went back to the sea green eyed killer. After the one month of training, he would soon have to live with me for one year until it would be decided if he could be trusted to live on his own. I would have to actually  _live_ with someone who had killed his own family. Just my luck.

My apartment came into view but I was still seething with anger. I just couldn't stop myself from hating him. Percy Jackson had had the luxury of no one taking his family away, a family that loved him and he  _killed_ them all. How could a person do that? I started to get agitated and decided to do a little workout once I was inside my apartment. I ran up the stairs, took my keys out and unlocked the first door before going inside the building. I ran up the stairs, that could be found on the left side once a person walked in, and ran up all the way until I reached the fifth floor. I went down the hallway, turned left and came up to my door. Taking my keys out I quickly unlocked the door and slammed it shut once I was inside.

**"Welcome Nico, would you like anything to eat? Do you wish me to run your bath? Would you like to change your interior decor? There are some new things on the market."** Anna greeted him as soon as he stepped in.

"Anna, shut off." I commanded as I took off my jacket and threw it on the sofa.

**"Are you sure Nico?"** Anna asked me once more.

"Yes, now shut off." I soon saw the panel on the side turn off and knew I was alone.

My apartment was nice, a bit too large for just one person but I liked it. It was up to date on all the new furniture and tech and I was constantly changing it up. The walls were a light blue color, the floor was wood, a dark brown color. The sofas were black leather and there was a coffee table in the center that was glass. The TV was propped up on a shelf and the DVD and cable below it. There was an opening off to the side that led to the kitchen. I decided to go in and get two bottles of water and three granola bars for my workout. The kitchen was open, the stove, oven, dishwasher, and fridge were all stainless steel. The marble countertops were a mix of dark and light brown, the cabinets were black, the walls in the kitchen were white. I opened the fridge and took out my snacks, then I made my way for the dojo room I had Anna build.

I went to my bedroom to quickly change into more comfortable clothes. My bedroom walls were a light gray, the furniture was black, on the floor I had a few rugs. My duvet was dark purple and my bed was King size. I opened my chest and took out a simple white shirt and black sweatpants. After changing, I grabbed my things and made my way to the dojo.

I opened the door to the dojo; unlike everything else, this door didn't automatically slide open by itself. Inside the floor was wooden and light brown, a big black mat covered almost all of it except for the edges. The walls were an off-white color, and propped on the walls were different weapons. A bow and arrow, a few swords; all different styles, there were daggers. Gaea knew about this room, and although this stuff was banned inside Attica, she had made an exception for me. Guns, like how police officers used back then were also banned. I had told Gaea that I just wanted to learn how to fight with a sword, the rest of the weapons were decoration. I had no idea how to use a bow and arrow, nor a dagger, but they seemed like good decorations.

So I learned to fight with a sword and took lessons from a teacher Gaea hired, after that, I practiced sword fighting on my own and made this dojo where I could be alone. I left my food on the side and went over to the wall were the swords were propped. I picked up a sword, third on the row of swords and went over to my dummy in the corner. The sword was a long-sword, the blade was sharp and the handle was bronze with a red gem in the center. I took my stance and exhaled slowly before swinging, hitting the dummy in the chest. I thrust my sword and hit the side.

Percy Jackson. He killed his family. A killer gets to walk free without a sentence.

That hardly seemed fair.

With the back of my sword I hit the dummy in the head before turning the blade in my hand and slashed across the dummy's chest.

I kept hitting and slashing the dummy more and more. My anger that someone who had done something that was beyond terrible and they were given a second chance made me see red. Before I knew it, the dummy was in shreds and I was sweating bullets. I looked at the time on my wristband and saw I only had forty-five minutes to shower and get changed to meet up with Jason, Reyna and Annabeth.

I looked back at the dummy and saw how torn up it was. Did I really just do that? And over a hound especially? I shook my head and put my sword back. I made my way to my bedroom and went to my bathroom.

Twenty five minutes later, I was out and already dressed. I looked at my watch and saw the time was 8:11, I decided to make my way over to the restaurant we were all supposed to meet at. I turned Anna back on and left my apartment, made my way to the elevator and went down. Once the doors opened, I made my way out and walked down the street. The place we were all meeting at was a small and cozy burger joint, not exactly well known.

I walked down the clean streets of Attica. All around me were people, with friends, family, children, lovers, every single one of these people had someone. Someone to call their own.

"Tyler! Watch out Tyler!"

I heard a girl yell and I looked to see this girl about twelve years of age, with mocha skin and light brown hair calling after a boy, younger than her and so similar. I figured they were siblings. The small boy fell down, he was chasing after a squirrel when the girl finally caught up to him. He started to cry out in pain at his scraped knee.

"Tyler, are you okay? Mom! Tyler fell down!" The girl looked back to her brother. "It's okay Tyler, we'll make it feel better."

"Hey Nico," Bianca called to me.

"What Bi?" I asked, slightly annoyed.

"All I'm saying is be careful, okay? This little skateboard trick of yours, you could get badly hurt." Bianca touched my shoulder.

"I'll be fine so stop worrying about me." I shrugged off her hand.

Bianca grabbed my face and made me look her in the eye, "Nico, I'm your big sister, I'm always gonna worry about you."

I shook my head and continued to walk to the burger joint. Someone was probably there already, waiting. I walked past a vendor selling hot dogs and past a girl walking her dog, her friend joking with her. The more I walked, the more I realized, I barely paid attention to the drones that were all around the community. They seemed to have gotten better at blending in. A few minutes later, I found myself in front of the burger joint. I opened the door, walked inside and scanned the place, looking for a familiar face.

The burger joint was small. The tiles were black and white, the tables were wood and they ranged from booths to two seaters to a four person seating. Overhead, there were beams and off to the side was a music machine. I soon saw a blonde head of hair and walked over to the booth the blonde had picked out.

"Hey Annabeth," I said as soon as I got close to her.

She looked up at me, "hey, sit down. Reyna's already here, she just went to the bathroom." Annabeth went back to reading her book.

"Art Of War?" I said, taking a look at the cover.

"Yes, I read it once before, a long time ago, now I'm just rereading it for fun." Annabeth smirked up at me.

"Heavy reading." I muttered as I tapped my fingers on the table.

Soon enough, Reyna appeared. I saw her make her way from the bathroom to our table.

"Hey Nico, how was your talk with Gaea?" Reyna asked me as soon as she sat down next to Annabeth.

"It was fine, she just wanted to see how I was and all that."

"Mm, well we're just waiting on Jason, I don't know why he's taking forever." Reyna tapped her fingers on the table as she looked to the door of the restaurant.

Ten minutes later, Jason came in and sat down beside me.

"Nice of you to join us, not like we're hungry or anything." Reyna teased Jason as soon as he got to our table.

"Sorry guys," Jason rubbed the back of his neck.

"I was half tempted to just order without you Jase," I elbowed him in the side.

"Dude, sorry I just got held up, I got word from the higher ups that my hound, Leo," we nodded our heads as Jason explained his delay. "Well, he's good in technology and mechanics, I mean I took a look at his results of the tests Anna ran and it's like the guys some sort of genius of something. Anyway, he's gonna be working with me and Calypso from time to time."

"So, he's gonna have two partners?" Annabeth asked Jason.

"No, well, I'm his official partner but whenever Calypso's in a jam, Leo's gonna help out." Jason took a look at the menu.

"That's weird..." Annabeth said as she signaled a waiter over.

"Yeah but what can you do," Jason shrugged his shoulders.

Soon enough, we all gave our orders to the waiter and we were left alone. We kept talking about mundane things. Annabeth was busy going over all the books she had read in the past and finding new ones to read, she was also studying a bit of architecture at the local college and was taking a course. Reyna was busy arranging her place. It was one month until the hounds came back but she said she needed to take care of a few things. Jason said he had joined a football team of guys who had played it back in high school and college. I didn't really share much, since nothing interesting was going on in my life.

"I beg to differ," Reyna smirked at me.

"What do you mean?" I looked at her in confusion.

"What's that little thing you have going on with Will?" Jason turned to looK at me, a single eyebrow raised in question.

I looked at all three occupants at the table and let out a small chuckle. "Oh that, that's nothing."

"Sure didn't seem like nothing when we were in the elevator..." Annabeth tried to sound casual.

"Well, it was nothing." I sipped some of my soda.

"Okay sure Neeks, if you say so." Jason laughed.

"Don't call me Neeks, and yeah, I do say so. Besides, it's nothing more than a friend with benefits thing..." I muttered.

"What?" Reyna asked me.

"Yeah, it's not serious, there's no feelings involved just... you know, sex. We flirt, him publicly, me a bit more privately, and that's it. Nothing more." I shrugged my shoulders.

"So you're admitting to have sex with him?" Annabeth asked me.

"Yeah, just sex. No feelings."

Before they could ask anything else, the waiter returned with our food. But as soon as he left everyone turned to me.

"And, how is he?" Reyna asked me.

"How is he in what?" I smirked her way.

"Can we not talk about this while we eat?" Jason pulled a face.

"Oh come in Jase, live a little, experiment why don't you you straight A goody goody," Reyna teased him.

"Experiment?" Jason looked at her.

"Yeah, have sex with a guy just once and brag about you living life dangerously." Reyna merely smiled at him.

"You're crazy." Jason looked at her incredulously.

"No I'm not, besides you can't tell me you've never been curious, am I right?" Reyna looked at Jason.

"Um-"

"Just answer the question," Annabeth interrupted, "was Solace good in bed or not?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?" I chuckled at Annabeth.

"Yes we would, which is why we're asking you." Reyna threw me a french fry.

"That's not how you're gonna get your answer," I say as I take a bit out of my burger.

"And I'll keep throwing more until you do."

"Oh come on Nico, is he?" Annabeth asked once more.

"Why do you wanna know?" I look at Annabeth.

"Because, one time, a long time ago I was about to have sex with him. Back when we were fresh out of training. We were all having a party to celebrate and me and Will... well, things got sort of... hot and all that. We didn't end up having sex though. I didn't want to in the end, but it looked like he knew his stuff." Annabeth shrugged her shoulders as she took a sip of her drink.

"Okay, sounds reasonable enough of why you're so curious."

"Dude, please don't say it," Jason grabbed my shoulder.

"I think Reyna's right Jase, maybe you do need to live a little." I smirk his way. "Yeah... oh yeah, he is... he knows his stuff."

"Nice," Reyna laughed as Annabeth giggled. "What else?"

"Oh god, I think I'm gonna-"

"Listen in full detail?" Reyna interrupted Jason.

"Sorry but I don't kiss and tell." I leaned back in my seat.

"Thank god." Jason exhaled heavily.

"Oh well, at least we got something," Annabeth shrugged her shoulders.

"Nico, you white knight." Reyna shook her head.

* * *

 

"Happy Birthday to you!"

I looked around at my family, smiling at me as they sang Happy Birthday.

"Go on sweetie, make a wish," my mother told me.

Maria di Angelo. My mother was so beautiful. With her brunette, wavy straight hair that curled at the ends. Her light brown eyes that reminded me of coffee. Her thin lips that curved beautifully when she smiled. My mother was slim, with a curvy frame. She had fair skin, a blush would adorn her cheeks whenever she was kissed by her love.

"I don't think I have anything to wish for..." I looked up at my family.

"I'm sure there's something you want son?" My father asked me.

I looked so much like my father. I had his black hair, but they curled at the ends, like my mother's, and his pale skin although I had a bit of an olive tinge. His dark brown eyes that seemed endless.

"I don't know dad, what should I wish for?" I asked him.

"Well hurry it up, before the wax of the candles start melting off and start to land on the cake!" My sister said with a small giggle.

My sister Bianca looked like both my father and mother. She had my father's eyes and hair and skin, but freckles dusted across her face.

I nodded my head once and looked back down at my cake.

_Happy Birthday Nico!_  was written in icing, ten candles were lit. The cake was covered in chocolate frosting. On the sides, crushed Oreo crumbs were on it.

_I wish to have my family with me always._

I blew out the candle and looked back at my family. They clapped once more before my mom came over to cut my cake.

"Tomorrow, we're going to go to Disney World," my dad announced, and me and my sister looked at him in disbelief. "I got approved by Gaea to leave Attica and go to Disney World. Your things are already packed kids." My dad smiled at us.

"No way! Dad!" Bianca hugged our dad and I went over, running to hug him too.

"Let's eat some cake guys!"

...

"Come on, open it. I bet you're gonna like it." Bianca told me in a sing song voice.

I quickly unwrapped my present to find a set of cards and figurines. Not just any set of cards and figurines either, they were Mythomagic cards and figurines.

"No way! No way! Bianca!" I look up at her and see her smiling at me.

"Yep, I got you that, figured it was your new and fastest obsession."

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" I say to her as I give her a hug.

"You're welcome." Bianca laughs. "Maybe you can teach me how to play this dorky game of yours."

"Its not dorky."

"Oh come on, I'm only kidding," Bianca smiles softly at me.

"Thanks Bi," I look up at her.

"No problem, happy birthday Nico."

"Nico. Nico. Nico!" I feel someone shaking my shoulder.

"What?!" I shake my head and look at the person calling my name.

"Dude, we're leaving, the arcade's closing." Jason said, looking at me in concern. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." I cough slightly and look away from his scrutinizing gaze.

"Okay..." Jason said slowly, "well, we gotta go."

"Right."

Jason, me, Reyna and Annabeth all leave the place; I didn't remember ever entering the arcade place since the burger joint.

"I can't believe you actually got something out that thing," Reyna snorted as Annabeth shoved a stuffed animal in her face.

"Its all about being the crane Reyna," Annabeth teased as Reyna rolled her eyes.

"Unbelievable."

I had no idea what brought on the sudden thought of my tenth birthday... but I was at a loss. Before I knew it, we had reached my apartment. Reyna and Annabeth had already reached their homes and now it was only me and Jason.

"You alright there Nico?" Jason asked me.

"Yeah I'm fine, just..." I let out a breath, "tired is all. I'm gonna go to sleep. Night man."

"Yeah, night." Jason kept on walking as I entered the building.

Once inside, I boarded the elevator and pushed the button for the fifth floor. I really was exhausted, I couldn't wait till I got to bed. Once I reached my floor, I walked towards my door and took out my keys.

"Hey neighbor," a familiar voice called out to me.

I turn around to see none other than Will Solace, smirking at me.

"Solace," I nod my head towards him and he gives me a wink.

"So, I thought I was gonna see you just not this late... but better late than never, right?"

I rolled my eyes at him. Will, who was leaning against his door frame strode over to me.

"So," the blond put his hands on my hips, "I've got a problem and you're the only one who can help me."

Those blue eyes looked at me, a sort of pleading look in them.

"Let me guess, you're horny?" I drawled out.

"Bingo."

"Wow."

"Oh come on, in one month we won't have the luxury of doing this so freely when the hounds are back, let's take advantage, yes?" Will smiled at me in a charming way.

I felt my resolve crumble and before I knew it, I was leading him inside. I felt him snake his arms around my waist and as he kissed up my neck before reaching my lips.


	3. Numbing Memories

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone and thank you for the comments, here's a new chapter to Resistance, and thank you for reading.  
> One thing that I did forget to mention though...  
> *Drones*  
> Are undercover machines that walk the streets of Attica and Tribeka and scan at random, different people. They scan so that they could know if a citizen is stable or not and so that they can check a person's psycho hue. They also administer treatment and send word to the AECPC if their readings of a person borderline danger.  
> Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson

_Numbing Memories_

Unbelievable.

I fell in love at first sight with someone who looked at me in disgust?

He didn't even know me. He didn't know what happened. The truth behind my family's murder. He didn't know anything and yet here he was, judging me. I couldn't believe I had actually fallen for someone like him. Well that was well over now. Nico di Angelo huh? I hated him. I hated the fact that he looked at me with such anger and hate. I hated the fact that he assumed I killed my own family. I hated the fact that I had been captured.

I thought things couldn't get worse... boy was I wrong.

We boarded the train and it took off down a secret path. It went underground and soon we were in a tunnel. I had no idea what was going to happen to us. They had explained that we were going to be training to be hounds but how? And where? Where would we be going?

"Hey."

I looked up to see Piper looking down at me, sadness evident in her eyes. No, not sadness, pity. Piper felt pity for me and I felt pathetic.

"Hey." I looked away from her and looked down at the ground.

I felt her sit down next to me, "look, I'm sorry about Nico... you're little crush. I kinda knew that Enforcers did that, they dress up as criminals in disguise and board the train where we're transported to the correctional facility in case of anything... but I had no idea he would be one of them."

"It's fine," I tell her and I try to sound strong but it comes out a bit weaker than I had hoped.

"Yeah, I hope so." Piper mutters and I look out the window of the train.

It's still dark with lights here and there and the walls of the tunnel are cement. Soon enough, we all hear a bell go off and we look up to see a man stand in front of us. He was bald and very well built. He had dark brown eyes that from far away looked black. He was also really tall, he was someone no one wanted to mess with.

"Listen here scum, it'll be thirty minutes before we reach the palace, once there, I want you all to line up in two straight lines and go out through this door," the mad pointed to his right, "you leave through that door in an orderly way and then I won't see you again until the end of the month. Now, sit tight trash, and get ready because soon enough you'll become the dogs of Attica."

"Well then, isn't he a bucket of sunshine?"

I turn around to see Leo Valdez, the small and energetic imp that sold tech on the black market. He's got that devious smirk on his face.

"Good to see ya, Perce." Leo smiles at me but there's something hidden in that smile, I just can't place my finger on it.

"Good to see you too Leo," I nod my head at Leo.

"It's been a long time, when was the last time I saw you..." Leo tapped his index finger to his lips, "oh right it was three years ago when you were fleeing the Enforcers because you killed your family and I helped you escape." Leo fixed me with a serious look, his smile no longer on his face, his lips pressed in a thin line.

Piper looked my way and her eyes widened.

"I may be a criminal, but I'm definitely not a killer." Leo sneered. "And I can't believe I actually helped you escape, me and Adam both did!"

"Percy... you-" Piper started but never got to finish.

"Look," I turned around fully to face Leo, "I did not  _kill_ my family. You can believe me or you can not, and frankly I don't care if you do because I'm telling the truth. Now shut the hell up and I better not hear you mention my family ever again." I fixed him a glared, my eyes narrowing. Leo saw them turning from a warm sea green to a dark blue, like the sea in storm.

"Or what? You gonna kill me?" Leo taunted.

"Leo, enough." Piper snapped at him.

"He killed his family Pipes! And  _I_ helped him escape!" Leo said a little too loudly. It caught the attention of everyone on board.

"I already told you that I didn't kill my family now shut the fuck up before I make you."

"Okay, let's all calm down." Piper tried to intervene.

"Honestly, I don't know why I bother explaining myself to you, you don't believe me and you're not going to... no one ever does." I gave Piper a sardonic smile.

"As if we'd believe you, for all we know you could be lying." Leo crossed his arms and turned up his nose.

"For all we know, he could be telling the truth." Adam suddenly got in the conversation.

Leo looked over at Adam and his eyes bulged out of his head, "you're joking right? You've gotta be."

"We weren't there to see what happened but uh, Percy looks like too much of a sissy to do something like that so, what can I say? I believe him." Adam shrugged his shoulders as he sat back in his seat.

"I'm not a  _sissy_ and I didn't kill my family." I rolled my eyes, ready to snap at any moment.

"Well if you didn't who did? Besides, Anna's got proof." Leo rebuffed my claim of being innocent.

"Someone else did." I inhaled deeply, trying to reign in my anger.

"Oh yeah, who?" Leo asked, in a snarky attitude.

"I don't know who! I just know one day I came home from school and-" my voice faltered, "and I s-saw my little brother... he-" I turned away. "And my mom and dad... they were- and all of a sudden Anna was accusing me of killing them and- then there was this voice and he said he killed them and framed me... he- I never saw his face." My hands were clenched into fists. "And he- he..."

"He what Percy?" Piper asked me gently.

"He killed..." I looked up at Piper and saw concern in her eyes.

"Who did he kill?" She asked, urging me to continue.

"Please," Leo scoffed. "this guy is making this up."

"Shut up Leo." Piper shushed Leo and turned back to me. "Who else did he kill Percy?"

"...Danny..."

Piper looked at Leo, a confused look on her face. "W-who's Danny?"

...

"Miss?" I called after a girl, she had pink hair, like bubblegum and blue eyes, like the sky.

"Yes?" She turned around and looked at me, a small smile on her face. Her lips were painted red, her cheeks were rosy, she was gorgeous.

"Uh, you uh, you left your bag in the diner..." I said, cursing my stuttering as I gave her back her purse.

"Oh," she looked down at her purse in my hand, "thank you so much." She looked back up at me and smiled wider. "My name's Daniela." Daniela stuck out her hand.

"Uh, I'm James." I shook her offered hand and smiled shyly at her.

"Nice to meet you James," she laughed softly.

"Nice to meet you too."

Suddenly it started to rain heavily and she looked out at the streets, her face slowly dropped the smile she had not even two seconds ago.

"It's raining... really hard." Daniela stated. "And I left my umbrella at home."

"Uh, well, I have mine..." I spoke and broke her out of her thoughts. She turned to look at me and then down at my hand where I had a big umbrella. "You can have it if you want?" I said, offering it to her.

She looked at the umbrella for a second and then at me before that huge smile came back and I noticed she had a gap between her front teeth and I realized it made her look adorable.

"We can share it." She declared and she took my umbrella and my hand and dragged me out into the rain. She opened up my umbrella and took me under it. "See, big enough for the both of us." She smiled at me again and I couldn't help but return it.

"Yeah, big enough for the both of us." I felt rise up to my cheeks as I smiled at her.

"Would you... care to join me for a cup of coffee?"

I looked down at my feet before I heard her small giggle. I looked back up and those doe-like blue eyes looked at me, in a hopeful sort of way.

"I would love to join you for coffee."

"Excellent."

...

"Percy?" I felt Piper touch my shoulder softly and I shook my head, the memory of when I had first met Danny, already fading to the back of my mind.

"Hey, are you okay?"

"Y-yeah..." my eyes were watery and I willed my tears away, I had already cried enough when I lost Danny.

"Who is Danny?" Piper asked me again.

"Pipes he's just making things up now," Leo huffed in annoyance.

"And how do you know that?" Piper snapped at Leo.

"Besides, the guy doesn't look like he's lying." Adam spoke up, "he looks pretty shaken up and that counts for something." He fixed Leo with a look. "Lets not judge a book by its cover."

"But we don't actually know if he did kill his family or not, for all we know he could be a psychopath..." Luke got in the conversation.

"Yet, we also don't know if he actually is telling the truth and here we are doubting him." Apollo gave his opinion and I shot him a small smile.

"Still-" Leo began only to be cut off by Amber.

"Whatever. We are no one to judge him 'cause we're no better." Amber stood up in front of everyone. "So, let's stop putting the blame on a guy who could be innocent because we don't know what went on, and he could be telling the truth and if he keeps on with the same story then we'll know he is being truthful and he was nothing but a victim." Amber turned to me then with a small, sad smile on her face, "and I'm sorry we are all judging you."

"No, it's okay, like you all have said, you guys don't know what happened, but believe me when I say that I didn't kill my family... I loved them with my whole heart, I would never do anything to hurt them." I looked at each one person on the train and hoped that they could believe me.

"We jumped to conclusions," Piper started, glaring at Leo, "and sorry that we did. Amber's right, we don't have the right to judge Percy when we're no better. We are all criminals aboard here, so let's stop fighting and bickering amongst each other."

"Whatever," Leo looked away, but he had a sad look on his face.

After that, the whole train was quiet, every single one of us thinking about something different. The silence didn't last very long though, because the bald man came back and stood before us.

"Alright dogs, we'll be approaching the palace, get ready maggots."

We all sat down and waited for The train to come to a stop. Suddenly, there was light pouring in through the Windows, not such a bright light that harmed your eyes but more like the light of a setting sun. We were soon out of the long tunnel and out in the open. I looked through the window and saw the sun setting, stars were already out and twinkling. I saw a big field that had acres of trees. On the other side there was a lake, and then I saw a building. It was distant but it was soon getting closer. I could make it out to be a palace, well the place we would be  trained in. It didn't look like a castle, not exactly but the place was huge. The outside of the building was a dark red, the roof was slanted and it was made of red-brown tiles. The train soon rounded and came to a smooth stop in front of the palace. We lined up as the bald man had told us to and we made our way outside, in two lines.

Outside, the walkway was gravel, brown and white stones were placed on the sides of the walkway. The grass surrounded the whole place. Off to the side there were a few trees that had fruit on them, I saw apples so ruby red and juicy, I wanted to walk up to the tree and pluck one just to have a bite. The front doors of the place were dark brown oak, and they were huge. There were windows that were made of stained glass on the first floor while the rest from the second level and up were normal windows. As we got closer, I saw a man standing there in the center. He was wearing blank pants and a white, long-sleeved shirt. His hair was gray and slicked back in his head, he had a beard and light brown eyes. He looked to be in his 60s, and he probably was.

In merely a few seconds, we were standing in front of him and the bald guy that had been on the train; never found out his name had left.

"Welcome," the old man said, "my name is Jeremy and as you all have heard, you will be staying in my home for one month to train to become hounds. You will learn how to think like a hound, track like a hound, and act and fight like a hound. I hope you all get through this, it'll be a long month. I'm going to drill all of this in your head. Now then, dinner is inside, and after dinner you will be shown to your rooms where you'll sleep in groups of five in three separate rooms. You get one hour before lights out. Follow me."

Jeremy turned around and made his way to the doors, where they opened up. Once we flooded inside, I say that the living room was the first room we encountered. The floors were marble, a beige color and the couches were a light brown. The center had a round, dark brown coffee table and above, hanging down from the ceiling was a chandelier. Off to the side, there was a staircase that led up to the rooms probably. We moved past the living room and made our way into a dinning room. The table was in the center, and it was long and spacious, made of dark brown wood.

"Here's where you will be eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Sit down, after dinner, I'll be giving you all a tour of the place. I have staff that cater to my needs which means that they will cater to your needs as well but you're going to be expected to wash your own clothes, fold them and put them away." Jeremy explained to us as we all sat down and soon enough, his staff made their way to the table, putting platters of food in front of us.

The food that was placed looked so delicious. There was corn on the cob, mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, grilled chicken, juicy steak, green beans, carrots sliced up in cubes, white rice, black beans, breadsticks. And all of this made my mouth water. Soon, plates and cutlery were placed in front of us and then, glasses. Pitchers of juice and water were placed all around us in the center of the table. I looked around and saw the expressions on everyone's faces. Piper had wide eyes, she licked her lips subconsciously as she kept on looking at the food. Leo was rubbing his hands together, as if he were up to evil except that he was eying the food placed in front of us with a ravenous look than with an evil eye. Luke had a disbelieving look on his face, same as Amber and Adam had a smirk on his face as he looked over everything. Apollo had a huge smile on his face, Clarisse, for once wasn't scowling and instead looked at the food suspiciously, and Silena had the look of pure joy. The rest of the hounds also had shocked expressions that soon turned to happiness.

"Is this all... for real?" Adam was the first to speak up.

"Yes, you're expected to eat and to keep a healthy body, nothing like a good home cooked meal? It's best that all of you are well-fed. Just because you are all criminals and because you will soon become dogs doesn't mean a thing, it doesn't mean you will be treated badly in home nor starve. That'd be inhumane." Jeremy told us and for a second, I though I saw his eyes softening. "Now, eat up, we still have that tour not to mention you need to sleep because tomorrow we'll be up early to have breakfast and have your first day of training."

Very slowly, we started to take food from the platters placed in front us until our hunger won out and we started to pile it on our plates. I poured juice in glass and and piled my plate with rice, chicken, beans, and a steak. Off to the side, I saw onions and started to put it on top of my steak, there were juices in the bowl of onions and I poured a generous amount. The food tasted amazing and I took a sip out of my juice. It was mango, tasty and sweet, so utterly mouthwatering that I drank it all in a minute. I poured myself some and continued to eat. I didn't realize how starved I was until I had actual food in my mouth.

About an hour later, everyone had finished eating, stuff full and sitting in the chairs at the dining table with satisfied smiles on their faces. Jeremy looked at each of us, a twinkle in his eye and I couldn't help but sort of trust the old geezer. He didn't seem mean, like the Enforcers, but he also didn't seem like the guy you would wanna mess with.

"Now, time for a tour of the place. You saw the living and the dinning room, now let's move to the kitchen." He stood up and everyone followed suit as he made his way to the kitchen.

The kitchen was huge, there were three stoves, three ovens, four dishwashers, three sinks, five microwaves, two fridges and a bunch of cabinets. The counters were big and they lined up against the wall. In the middle there was this huge island, almost resembling a huge kitchen table. The counters were black marble and the cabinets were dark wood, everything else was stainless steel. The kitchen was absolutely gigantic and it all made sense because you would need a big kitchen to cook big meals for loads of people, so there was a reason as to why this kitchen was so big.

"Yes, I know, the kitchen is huge, but it's for the best." Jeremy shrugged his shoulders. "Let's go upstairs so that you may see your bedrooms. Now, I trust the  lot of you, when paired to sleep in the same room with someone of a different gender of yours, you will all react in a mature way, no?" Jeremy asked us this question and looked at us with a serious expression.

"Yes sir, we'll act in a mature way." Apollo spoke up and looked at each of us. No one said anything and we went up the stairs to the second floor.

"The second floor is the bedrooms, for all of us." Jeremy told us as we made our way through the floor. We passed by the first door. "This is my room." Jeremy said and then we passed by a second door. He opened it to reveal a huge room.

The inside had five beds, all twin beds. One was near the window, the other against a wall, one was vertical and next to the one near the window, another one was near the door to the room and the last one along the other side of the wall. Next to them, were bedside tables and there were five dressers, so that we could put our clothes in. The room was bare but otherwise nice. It had only the necessities it seemed.

"In here, Percy Jackson, Piper McLean, Luke Castellan, Leo Valdez and Amber Lockser." Jeremy told us, he then closed the door and turned to look at us. "You'll be able to come back here later, let's move on to the next room."

The next room was a ways down the hall and it was just as big as the first room. With five bedrooms, five dressers and it was bare, just like the first one.

"In here it will be Silena Beauregard, Clarisse La Rue, Apollo Solace, Adam Fernandez, and John Mitchell are going to be roomed here." Jeremy announced and then closed the door before moving down the hall. At another room, it was the same deal. "And finally in here, Joanna Mellano, Melissa Gilbert, Mason Hastings, Noah Montgomery and Beth Copeland. Now, let's move to the next floor of the house."

We walked forward and came across another set of staircase at the end of the hall. Everyone climbed the stairs and we came upon the third floor.

"On this floor, we will train how to fight, and do exercises. We will train how to disarm a person whether they have a knife or a gun, any dangerous weapon. We have punching bags and different weapons to fight with, you'll learn everything you need to learn."

Jeremy opened these double doors and slowly they revealed a huge room. The room had hardwood floors and in the center there was a big, black mat that took up half of the space in the room. Off to the side there were a few punching bags and on the other side of the room there were weapons. Knives, swords, guns; I didn't know if they were even allowed in Attica but Jeremy had them on display and many more weapons. The walls were white and bare of anything. On one whole side of the room were mirrors, huge mirrors reaching from the the ceiling all the way down to the floor instead of a wall.

"Whoa..." Leo whispered and then the doors closed.

"Now, the fourth floor is reserved for my staff, the ones who live inside my home and that floor is off limits. We're going back to your rooms, tomorrow your clothes will arrive and I expect you all to be awake by eight a.m sharp, and to be down for breakfast. Tomorrow, I'll be giving you all a tour of the outside." We were led back to the second floor. "Goodnight, let's hope you all have a good night's sleep, you'll need it for tomorrow." Jeremy chuckled to himself as we each went to our respective rooms.

As I laid down in my bed, I couldn't help but think that Jeremy was a kind soul and I wondered why he was stuck with this job. This job of training criminals to act like the dogs of society... I rolled over to my side. The room was dark now, quiet and I was left with my thoughts... something I didn't want because they always drifted back to my past.

_"Address 215 Palisade Avenue, next to this deli, Gio's Deli... there's a boy named Leo Valdez. He can help you..."_

I ran through the sewers, losing track of where I was even going. I was taking turns left and right trying to outrun the hounds and Enforcers and it seemed to have worked. I didn't hear anything for at least thirty minute. I took a right turn, I had no idea where I was going or if I was even going in the right direction I just knew I had to get away. I took a left turn and suddenly came upon a way outside. Should I take this chance and go up? What if they were waiting for me? I decided to chance it and started climbing the ladder up to the manhole that was above ground. With difficulty I pushed the manhole and slid it out so that I could be out in the open. I poked my head out and looked around me. I didn't see any signs of Enforcers nor hounds and slowly got out of the sewer system. I made my way into an unfamiliar part of Attica.

All around me, the buildings were old and trashed, crumbling, they looked to be under construction. I didn't hear any cars and I looked down a street; it was bare with no cars or people. There were train tracks in the road but I saw no trains passing through. It actually looked like a ghost town. I had no idea where I was and I was suddenly feeling afraid. My heart started to beat rapidly, everything that had happened washing over me. My family was dead. I was to blame. I was on the run. I was a wanted person. What was I going to do? How was I going to reach this Leo person? I had no idea what I was even doing and I was scared out of my wits.

I walked over to an empty building and holed up inside until it grew dark. I was cold, I was hungry, I was angry, sad and miserable. What was I going to do? I raked my hands through my hair for about the millionth time when I heard a noise outside of the building. My head snapped up at the sound and I looked straight ahead, my ears straining to pick up any noise, my eyes were wide, frantically searching around the empty and dark building for any shadows. My heart was thumping against my chest, and my breathing was uneven. Had they found me already? So soon? Was it really that easy to find me? I heard shuffling of feet and back up against the wall I was sitting against.

"Percy?" I heard someone call my name and I looked for the source of the voice. "It's Marisol, are you here?"

My body moved along the walls and the shuffling sounded closer.

"I'm alone." Marisol spoke once more.

"I'm here," I answered her and fully came into view. "How'd you get here?"

"I took a cab as far as I could and then walked the rest of the way," Marisol said, coming in to view as well and looked me over. "You have a tracker on you, although it's hard to get a signal what with you being in this place but I'll bet that they're close to cracking the signal jam. Lets take it off you." She motioned for me to come close to her.

I hesitated for a second before giving in and doing what she told me to do. She took my hand and went up my sleeve where she took out a small little chip that I didn't know I had on me before throwing it on the floor and squashing it under her foot.

"Good, now that's taken care of. Now, I'm sure you're hungry..." once Marisol mentioned food, my stomach rumbled and my cheeks tinted pink.

"Uh, yeah... I am hungry," I sheepishly admitted.

"I brought food." Marisol said with a small smile as she took out from her bag three sandwiches, strawberries, and bottle of apple juice. She handed me everything and sat down Indian style on the dirty floor of the building.

I looked at the food and began to eat, I was so hungry I ate the first sandwich in under a minute. "Thank you, so much... for everything..." I said as I unwrapped the next sandwich and took a bite.

"You're welcome," Marisol chuckled softly as she watched me eat.

Ten minutes later, I ate the last of the strawberries and took a swig out of the apple juice. We were sitting cross legged in front of each other, Marisol and I.

"I don't... even know how I can thank you... you've done so much for me, a complete stranger who almost everyone believes that I've killed my family..." I looked down at my lap and felt tears prickle at the corners of my eyes.

The image of my family brutally killed forever seared into my mind. I was alone in this world and no one would ever know that I was innocent... ever.

"It's okay, for some crazy reason, I believe you." Marisol whispered, breaking me away from my thoughts.

"I didn't kill them, someone else did, I just... I don't know who or... even w-why? Why would they do this? I don't think we've ever done anything to... well whoever it was..." my brows furrowed and I clenched my fists.

"Do you know anything about the person? If it's a man or a woman?" Marisol asked me.

"It was a man, he spoke to me when Anna had locked me in the house. Suddenly, Anna h-had malfunctioned and she shut down... I don't know how or that that was even possible. He said I was being an idiot if I chose to stay and wait for you guys to get there... he said he had killed them and that I couldn't prove my innocence because... he framed me. H-how am I supposed to prove I'm innocent when all I know of the person who killed my family is how he sounds like?" I looked at Marisol as tears ran down my face.

I heard Marisol swallow before she shook her head, "I don't know, and I'm so sorry this happened... but for now, we're getting out of here, while it's still dark out and I am getting you to Leo's so that you could get away, start a new life."

I looked over at Marisol and smiled at her, "thank you, so much, for everything you're doing. You're risking your neck for me, total stranger. Why?"

"I believe in doing what's right and something about you... it just, it feels right, I somehow believe you didn't kill your family and my guts gotta count for something, right?" Marisol shrugged her shoulders.

"Hmph," I snorted softly, a small smile touching my lips, "still, thanks a lot."

I rolled onto my back and looked up at the ceiling to this place we were all staying at. I heard a bed creak but ignored it, thinking someone was only turning around to sleep better. Until I heard a small psst to my right. I looked over and saw Piper leaning up against her left elbow, she looked over at me with a concerned look.

"Hey, is everything okay?" She whispered to me.

"Yeah," I whispered back, "just- having trouble sleeping is all..."

Piper looked like she didn't fully believe me but she nodded her head and went back to sleep. I went back to staring at the ceiling and tried to count sheep, hoping I could fall asleep. Finally, somewhere around two in the morning I fell asleep.

I heard footsteps going back and forth, walking across the floor and I cracked an eye open to see what was going on? I saw a blond head of curly hair going around the room, leaning over a bed before waking the person up. Then he came to my bed, Apollo and he shook my leg, trying to wake me up. I groaned out loud and I heard laughter come from him.

"Time to get up sunshine, the sun's awake, the birds are singing, it's a beautiful day and let's not waste it sleeping." Apollo chuckled as he went over to Luke's bed and trusted him awake.

"I will kill you, I swear to it," the other blond muttered as he got up and rubbed his eyes.

"I don't fear death," Apollo stuck out his tongue at Luke.

I begrudgingly got up as well, staying up didn't do me any good, I was dead tired and wanted nothing more than to sleep. Suddenly, there was a knock against the door and we heard Jeremy's voice through the door.

"Girls and boys, come on out and let's get to the bathrooms where you will shower."

We all got up then and Apollo opened the door, letting us all go through. Everyone else in the other rooms were standing outside in the hall.

"Now then, you will have clothes, a towel, soap, shampoo, a tooth brush and tooth paste waiting for you once you get to the showers. There's enough for every one so there won't be a need to fight." Jeremy spoke as he led us down the stairs before reaching the first floor and turning a right going the opposite direction than where the living room was. "Every time you need anything replaced you will come and tell me, I'll replace it for you. The rest of your clothes should arrive some time after lunch. Now, one side is for the woman and the other for the men." Jeremy pointed to the bathrooms. "Your stuff are in there, please, be quick so that you are on time for breakfast."

Jeremy left then, and we all filed in to the designated bathrooms for us. Once in there, we saw toilet stalls on one side, a whole bunch of them. On the other side, were shower stalls and in the center were the sinks. Off to the side were two large, full body mirrors. By each shower stall on a stool there were the necessities which belonged to us. Each of us walked in a line until we reached the shower stall. No one was left with nothing, every single one of us got what we needed.

"Well, let's get this show on a roll," Apollo clapped his hands together as he started to strip of his clothes.

"Whoa dude, what are you doing?" Leo started to ask, panicking slightly.

"Um, I'm taking my clothes off..." Apollo raised a single eyebrow.

"Yeah, but... you're in a room full of dudes... I mean, aren't you- I don't know embarrassed? Or something?" Leo looked away from Apollo as he rubbed the back of his neck.

"Dude, I'm confident in my sexuality besides, it's just taking off my clothes so that I could shower, and we all got the same junk, so no biggie." Apollo shrugged his shoulders as he took off his shirt, revealing a very toned chest.

"Ah jeez," Leo dragged a hand down his face as he shook his head.

Soon, Apollo's pants came off and up next were his boxers. At that point I decided to look away and undress myself so that I could shower quickly and grab a bite to eat.

Twenty minutes later, some of the boys were already done changing and brushing their teeth while others got dressed. I was already done and I took my things with me, going upstairs to the room I was staying in and putting my things away in the dresser that belonged to me. I came jogging down the stairs and went to the dinning room. I saw Piper sitting there already talking to Adam and Silena, with Clarisse speaking every now and then. Apollo and Luke were talking together, and Leo was making Amber laugh, telling her jokes. I decided to sit next to Piper and tried to make myself invisible. What happened yesterday on the train coming back to memory. I really did not want to talk about anything with anyone but as soon as I sat down, Piper turned to look at me. I didn't even know her that well and yet I found I could read her expression so clearly; she wasn't going to let what happened yesterday go.

"Hey Percy," Piper smiled at me as she greeted me.

"Hey Piper, what's up?" I asked her as I slid in my seat.

"Not much, just talking with Adam... you know," Piper started to say, trying to be careful around whatever subject she was going to bring up, "he told me that you came to Leo about three years ago and that Adam had faked documents for you..."

I swallowed the lump in my throat and forced myself to speak, "yeah, h-he did forge documents for me..."

"He said that you told them someone sent you to them... someone named Marisol?" Piper looked me in the eye and I looked away. I didn't know why but this conversation was making me nervous, probably because I was uncomfortable.

"Uh, yeah..." I said slowly.

"And yesterday, when we were walking out to the train that took us here, being led by this Enforcer... you had asked her about Marisol right? Because Marisol was an Enforcer herself right?" Piper kept on with her questions.

"Uh, yeah... Piper-where are you going with this?" I finally looked at her.

"Oh, nowhere I was- just curious... is all..." Piper looked away then and fingered the table cloth. "Anyway, I just wanted to apologize on Leo's behalf... since he's too stubborn to do it... he- we shouldn't have jumped to conclusions and pinned the murder if your family on you... it was wrong of us. I'm sorry, really, really sorry."

"Its okay," I said softly, giving Piper a half-smile. "You guys didn't know and well... I didn't really help my case by running from the Enforcers..."

"Still, it was wrong to do that especially since we're no better..."

"Don't sweat it," I put my hand on Piper's shoulder and gave her a smile to show I didn't mind, she had apologized and that was fine by me. More than fine, it meant that she believed I was innocent and that was a relieving feeling.

...

"Okay, Leo's place of business is right around the corner. I'm not going in because I'm sure the other Enforcers will get suspicious of my absence. Just tell them Marisol sent you, Adam knows and Leo only knows of me, he hasn't seen me but just tell them that they need to help you. It'll cost you though." Marisol explained things to me. "Now, here's what you're going to ask for, a wristband that can hide your psycho stat from the drones on the streets and make it seem normal and to be waterproof. Now, your instructions are to never take off this bracelet, ever. Then, you're going to ask Leo to create fake prints for your fingers and fake your ears so that the cameras won't catch on to you."

"F-fake my ears?" I look at Marisol, confusion very well shown on my face.

"Yes Percy, the ears of a person are like finger prints, we need to fake them. Now, with Adam ask him to give you a new birth certificate, New social security card, a new history, basically a new life. From where you went to school to where you used to live. Adam could sneakily put you back into the system just for you to get a job and such. Remember that once you do have a new life set up, you're going to need to be careful and hope you don't let anyone find out. This is the last time we'll see each other... good luck Percy."

"Wait Marisol, thank you... so much, thank you." I stopped her and gave her a hug. We parted and she smiled at me, giving a final nod she left and I walked over to Leo's place.

Leo had at first been wary of me but Adam had seemed to convince him to help me. It took Leo three days to create the wristband and fake the prints for my fingers and then my ears. It took Adam four days to crack the code on Anna to add me into the system and fake several documents to create my new identity. I became James Harrison and was able to get a job at a library.

I laid low and at the beginning I only went out to get groceries and do my laundry. I followed the investigation on my case, the news reported what they could get from the Enforcers but it seemed like Percy Jackson had seemingly disappeared. A year later, I had met the most wonderful girl ever.

"Percy, aren't you going to eat?" Piper nudges me and I come back to the present.

I look around and I see waffles, pancakes, muffins ranging from blueberry to chocolate chip to chocolate and red velvet. I see bacon, ham, sausages, eggs scrambled and sunny side up. Hash browns and tater tots. Pitchers of juice and coffee. The smell of the different kinds of foods all making my mouth water. I start to pile food on my plate and I feel Piper's stare on me, but I ignore it. I reason that it must seem odd to someone that I'm always losing myself in my past memories, always stuck in my thoughts.

After we're done eating, Jeremy takes us outside. There we see on the east side, there's a track field, on the west that's the shooting range where we're going to be learning how to shoot the Transform Gun, and in the center is where we'll spare from time to time if we're not inside.

"Alright, let's go to the track, we're gonna run three laps just to see how you kiddies do." Jeremy laughed a hearty laugh.

"Wait, you're running with us too?" Luke asked Jeremy as we made our way across the fresh cut grass.

"You betcha, I'm not letting you Gus just do these exercises."

Once we got on the track field, Jeremy started to jog, and we followed after him, jogging behind him. Slowly, he started to pick up the pace. Around the second lap we were all running, keeping pace and seeing how far we could go. After the third lap Jeremy stopped and turned to us.

"Not bad, now, let's just run until only one of you is left running, let's see how many laps you guys can do before you tire yourselves out." Jeremy smirked.

"Bring it on grandpa," John smirked at Jeremy.

"Oh, slow the roll there macho man." Jeremy started chuckling and John rolled his eyes, a soft smile making its way on his face, "let's do it tough guy," soon enough we started to run again, trying to catch up to the old man.

...

"Thank you for tonight, I had a great time." Danny smiled at me, showing off her gap teeth. I couldn't help but smile back at her.

"It was my pleasure, I really enjoyed myself." I said as I looked down at the ground, unable to meet her eyes. She was so beautiful and so kind and I just couldn't believe she had agreed to go out with me this many times.

"You know, this is the seventh date we've been on..." Danny bit her lip. We were standing outside the door to her apartment. "Would you like to come in for a bit?" She batted her eyelashes at me and looked up at me, giving me a doe-eyed look.

"I- would love to come in." I swallowed thickly, nervous butterflies fluttering around in my stomach.

"Great." Danny smiled at me widely, she turned around and opened the door to her apartment.

Once inside, she closed the door behind me and I walked around her apartment. She had black couches, two of them in the center of the living room and a glass coffee table. The kitchen could be seen from the living room and the dinning room was to the right from where the living room was. The floors were white tile and the walls were a soft lavender.

Danny took off her sweater and put it down on one of her couches, she threw her keys on her coffee table and then turned to me. She leaned in close to me and I could smell her lilac perfume. Danny wound her arms around me and brought me against her body. I wrapped my own arms around her waist and looked down at her. She bit her bottom lip before leaning up on her tip toes and gave me a small kiss. Then she gave one more, and one more until I grabbed her chin and kissed her fiercely. Her hands ran through my hair as I ran my hands down her back.

"Let's take this to the bedroom," Danny panted as she broke away from the kiss.

"Okay," I kissed her once more.

She took my hand and led me to her bedroom, she walked ahead of me and I saw her beautiful little black dress. The back of it was lace and my hands itched to take that dress off of her. Inside her bedroom, she turned around and kissed me hard. I ran my hands along the sides of her body and felt her shiver. I swiped my tongue along the bottom of her lip and she opened her mouth, granting me permission to slip my tongue in. I explored her mouth as I slowly unzipped the back of her dress. Danny was unbuckling my pants and unbuttoning my shirt before slipping the shirt past my shoulders. We stopped kissing and I slipped the dress off of her body. It fell to the ground, pooling at her feet.

I pulled down my pants and stepped out of them. We went back to kissing before I  gripped her hips, she walked backwards with me following after her until she fell on her bed. I climbed over her and took off her bra. I kissed her neck, sucking in between her neck and collarbone. She let out a breathy moan as I played with her breasts, pinching her nipples before my hand slipped down her body and under her underwear.

"Ahhh, James," she said breathlessly as I parted her lips and slipped a finger inside.

I made my way down and started to suck at her nipple, licking around before biting it softly and I relished in the squeal she let out. Further down, I took off her underwear. I kissed the inside of her thighs, slowly making my way to her awaiting heat. I parted her lips and slowly, licked her.

_"James!"_  Danny moaned a bit loudly as I continued pleasuring her.

My hands found their way back to her breasts as I swirled my tongue, flicking it lightly and making her let out a long moan. Her hands were in my hair, gripping on to it, lost in bliss. I stopped and went back to her, kissing her once.

"Do you have a condom?" I asked her.

"Yes, bedside drawer." She told me, breathlessly.

I reached over to her drawer and took out a condom. I rolled it on my length and positioned myself. Her long legs wrapped around me, We looked into straight at each other, azure coming into contact with oceanic eyes, before plunging myself into her heat.

_"Ahhhhh."_

"Jackson, we get it now, you've got stamina, now come on boy, let's move on so that we can do other exercises." Jeremy's voice snapped me back into reality.

I stopped running and looked around me. Everyone was sitting on the ground, relaxing and I looked over at Jeremy. He had his hands on his knees, sweat running down his face.

"Boy, you sure can run." Jeremy said to me before telling everyone to get up, we were moving the rest of the lesson inside.

Around dinner time, my body felt completely exhausted and I knew that tomorrow I would be feeling so sore. The workouts were intense and I knew I wasn't the only one feeling this at that moment. Leo looked about ready to pass out, Piper whined about wanting to go to bed and Luke and Apollo were trying not to show how sore they were feeling. The only one that seemed to be not too tired was Adam and it made me wonder if he kept in shape or worked out before he was ever caught. Before I was caught, I used to run and do a couple of exercises so that my chest wouldn't get flabby but it was never as intense as what Jeremy put us all through today.

All of us were at the dinning table when Jeremy came in. "Now, tonight, I want you guys to soak in the shower and let the water be a bit on the hot side. Soak in it for a bit before going to bed because we are not stopping at all, I've got a month to whip you guys up in shape."

There was a collective groan all around to which Jeremy only laughed at before the food was served. Soon enough, we quit our moaning and whining and started to eat. After the exhausting day I was starved and piled food on my plate. It always amazed me how the food got done in time for us to eat and it was always so delicious. The food tasted amazing here, I couldn't get enough of it. It's kind of like I never wanted to  _stop_ eating.

After dinner, I went to take a hot shower, hoping the water would sooth my sore muscles. The water ran over my hair and down my body, a sigh escaping my mouth. Living here had turned out to be a lot better than what I had thought. Some part of me didn't want to leave this place.

Once this month was through, we would all go back to city and work with the Enforcers, we would be treated lowly by them. And it was unfair because we were human like them, the only difference was that we broke the "rules". We had done a crime and from what I heard from half of the people here, it wasn't even that serious, with the exception of Leo and Adam. Not to mention I was innocent in the murder of my family yet I was being pinned for it. The system was messed up.

Not only had my family died, but so had my girlfriend. My gorgeous girlfriend. If my family hadn't been killed, I would've met Danny at some point in my life and by now, I would've planning on how to propose to her. I would be thinking of ways to go about asking that wonderful girl to marry me because Danny was an amazing girl who had made me happy, and it wasn't fair that  _he_  had taken her away from me. It wasn't fair that he had taken my life from me.

I turned off the water and stepped out of the shower. Drying myself with my towel I got changed quickly and made my way upstairs. Our clothes had come in a little bit after lunch so my dresser was full of my clothes. I looked around the room and saw that almost everyone had already fallen asleep. Turning the lights off, I dragged my tired body to bed.

Laying down, I looked up at the ceiling and thought about how my life could have been like if only things hadn't gone the way they did. And I wished with all of heart that all of this was just a dream. A really horrible dream. If only it were.


	4. Dutiful Servant

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for your comments and kudos! Just reading the story is already enough, thank you (:

_Dutiful Servant_

I took a sip of my coffee as the elevator made its ascend upwards to Gaea's office. She had called me yesterday and asked me to come in today. I figured she would since she was leaving on a business trip and as always, she would call me on the day she was leaving to stop by her office two hours before her departure so that we could talk and catch up. It was a gesture that sent a warm feeling through my body because it was nice to know someone cared for me even after my family's murder.

The elevators opened up to reveal the hallway down to Gaea's office. I walked down it and came across Minerva's desk where she was, as always, typing away furiously at the computer screen. She always kept busy, I have never once seen her relax.

"Good morning Minerva," I greet as I pass by her.

"Good morning Nico," she looks at me briefly before going back to work.

I open the door to Gaea's office and see Gaea talking on the phone with someone. She turns my way and signals me that she'll only be a minute. I smile her way, telling her it's okay. She's busy arranging things last minute. As she tells me this trip she's making is important and so she needs things to go smoothly. She finally hangs up the phone and huffs out, massaging her temple.

"Seems like things are getting difficult on purpose to make you lose your patience," I say jokingly and Gaea laughs softly.

"Things need to go smoothly, I am meeting with the president of the United States after all," Gaea's forest green eyes turned to look at me. "How are things going?"

"They're going well, not much has been happening, crime is low." I shrugged my shoulders as I moved to sit down on the couch she had in the office.

"I can see that, I've read a few of the reports from the Enforcers and it seems like things are quiet but... that bothers me," Gaea had a worried expression on her visage.

"Why?" I question.

"It's sort of like the calm before the storm, things are a bit too quiet around here..."

"Do you think-"

"I need to talk to you about something important Nico," Gaea cut me off.

"Okay, I'm all ears." I glanced her way.

"It regards Percy Jackson."

I blinked and looked at her. She couldn't have been serious right? Did she really say Percy Jackson? What did  _he_ have to do with- with...anything really?

"I am going to need you to watch Percy Jackson, Nico, he is a very special case." Gaea elaborated.

"Yeah no kidding," I snorted, "he killed his family."

"Just watch him carefully please? I feel that there is more to him than meets the eye, what do you say?" Gaea gave me a smile, "will you me do the favor? I only trust you, which is why I had him paired up with you."

My lips were pressed into a thin line but I couldn't flat out deny Gaea, so I shook my head sullenly.

"Excellent, thank you my dear boy." Gaea beamed and I couldn't help but smile back.

"Okay, so you're going to Tribeka?" I asked, wanting to change the subject.

Gaea picked up and followed through, "yes, I'll be doing a routine check, see how Atlas is handling things. After I will be heading off to the United States which is going to be a five hour trip by plane, and meet with the president. And of course the House Of Representatives, I'm petitioning for the approval to reveal Attica and Tribeka to the US and then, well the rest of the world."

That was Gaea's dream. She had started Attica and Tribeka with the dream of being able to change the US for the better. She had gotten funding around thirty years or so ago from the president back then, I always forget his name... Unfortunately the catch was that these communities would run secretly from the rest of the world, and Gaea would have to report back to the House every year so that they could track it's progress.

There was much debate going on, with two sides always arguing about what should be done with her project. Some wanted to share this with the country, have it prosper and evolve; others felt that it was unnatural and controlling, somewhat eliminating the freedom in which the country was once built on. Because both sides couldn't agree, the project never stepped forward.

Until now, a new president had been elected and he had looked into Gaea's files, the idea piquing his interest. He contacted Gaea a few months back, asking her to come in and explain in full detail her project which she did, he then promised her he would try his hardest to get a vote to petition for the release of her project and move it forward. Gaea was now going to be giving a speech; off the record of course to the House and ask them to vote on what would happen with her project in one year. If it moved forward, Gaea and Atlas were going to work together but if it didn't, Attica and Tribeka would stay hidden away; since the citizens were already used to that way of life.

I hoped that Gaea would get the vote to be able to move forward. She had worked hard for the better half of her life to accomplish this goal. She had kept going even after the death of both of her sons and husband. Gaea had lost everyone dear to her long ago, which is why now, she tried to spend as much time with me as possible. She told me a year after the death of my family, after growing just a bit closer to her, that I reminded her a lot of her younger son. Maybe that was why she was so sympathetic towards me when I found out my father had murdered my mother and sister. Maybe that was why we had connected. Maybe it was because we both knew what loss felt like.

"Good luck, if I know you, you've got a way with words, I'm sure you'll charm them to see your side of the coin," I smile as I grab her hand.

"Thank you my boy, that gives me courage, I think I'm going to be okay. I think I'll be able to convince the nonbelievers."

Suddenly a call came through on a loud speaker, "Gaea, your plane is here to transport you to Tribeka, if you wish to be on time, I suggest you would leave now please." Minerva's voice cut through the moment.

"Yes, thank you Minerva." Gaea answered before she got up. "Well, I'm off. I'm leaving Minerva in charge and I trust you to keep things running smoothly at the AECPC?"

"You know me Gaea, I'll hold things down, good luck with the speech." I smile softly at her.

"Thank you Nico, oh and remember what I said, when the hounds come back I won't be here to remind you, it's going to be a four-week trip to Tribeka and the States." Gaea ruffled my hair once before we made our way out of her office where Minerva was waiting patiently for her with a tablet in her hand, tapping away at it.

"I will Gaea, I'll keep an eye on him." I shook my head.

"Thank you, good luck dear! I'll see you when I come back!"

"Have a safe trip!" I call out to her before the elevator doors close and it goes up to the roof.

I stand in the hallway and wait for to them come back so that I can go to work and start my day.

* * *

 

I entered the building of the AECPC and went straight to my office on the second floor. Riding the elevator up with soft music playing in the background I thought over my conversation with Gaea and why she wanted me to watch an insignificant dog. There really was nothing special about Percy Jackson other than he was convicted of murdering his family and there was speculation that he had also killed Daniela Amaya, his girlfriend supposedly. Although that was thrown out of the question since they had looked into her death and found that her death was caused by a car accident. I looked over his file and read the details of it.

He had gone and graduated high school, he was a normal kid who had made captain of the swim team and had gone to college for all of two months before he disappeared from the system and went under a pseudonym. How he got in back in the system with the fake name and details to his life were still up for debate between the higher ups in the AECPC but they came to the conclusion that Adam Gonzalez had something to do with it. He was apparently a whiz with technology as was the other hound Leo Valdez, but they didn't trust Gonzalez and so put Valdez to help out Calypso with tech from time to time.

There was something else to Percy Jackson's file. During the time that he was sixteen years old to eighteen, there was no record that he had taken his daily injection that every citizen in Attica and Tribeka had to take. It seemed like he stopped and so the higher ups talked of how that could have played into the murder of his family. Even as James Harrison, he didn't take the injections needed, but I bet that had to do with him being in hiding. Still, what was his reason for not taking the injections?

I walked down the hallway, turning left until my office came into view. The blinds were ope, revealing my obsidian desk with my white computer in the center. Once I was nearby, the door slid open and closed behind me. The floor was a dark gray carpet, I had a shelf off to the side stacked with books and a cabinet filled with files on past cases and special files on people. I put my bag away on the bottom of my shelf and turned on my computer. My desk was impeccably clean and organized, everything I needed was where it always was and never out of place.

On my desk was the file I had asked for; being close to Gaea had its perks. I had asked for the file on Percy Jackson and his family so that I could learn more about him. Settling down in my chair, I opened up the file and flipped through. The first few pages had information I had already read on Percy Jackson that I had no interest in reading. I skipped a few pages until I came to Sally Jackson, a woman who had married Poseidon Jackson back when they lived in the States. It seemed as though, that when Attica was first being built, Sally and Poseidon had been able to live here.

Poseidon... his name sounded familiar, as if it were important to know how it connected. My brain kept tugging at the name and I couldn't help but skip to the pages that information on him. Unfortunately, when I got to Poseidon Jackson, all I found was the date of his birth, when he came to live in Attica, and what he worked in once he started life here. He worked as an accountant, nothing special and Sally owned a shop, a small one that sold things to decorate one's home. Somewhat like an arts and crafts store.

I was completely absorbed in reading Percy Jackson's file I didn't notice I had company in my office until I heard a throat being cleared. I looked up to see Rose standing there, waiting for me to take note of her presence. I close the file and lean back in my chair.

"Sorry to disturb... your reading, I can see how engrossed you were but, we've got a job." Rose held up a file in her left hand. "And it's not at all pretty."

I reach over for the file and she hands it to me. I open it up and read the contents written in it. Apparently at an all-girls private school, a school girl went missing about two days ago. The school was heavily monitored and secured during the night, so it left the staff puzzled as to how could someone sneak in and take one of their students.

"Alright," I huff slightly, "let's go."

...

Three hours later, and we're in the more suburban parts of Attica, away from the city noise and into the more quieter streets. Rose drives the car and makes a left where the road suddenly converges into a single road straight down. The trees are positioned a certain way on each side of the road, making it all seem pretty. A minute later, we make it to the front of the school. I see these huge iron gates slowly start to open and we drive in slowly, rounding the driveway before we stop in front of the main school doors. We step out and soon enough, we see the headmaster of the school approach us. Rose and I make our way up the many steps of the staircase and we meet the headmaster halfway.

The school is huge, resembling a castle somewhat. The outside of the school is gray cement with a great wooden door for the main entrance. The field that surrounded the school was green and freshly cut. There was a garden off to the side and trees were abundant. The school looked absolutely perfect and well guarded for I saw several guards walking around the vicinity. I wondered how exactly had a student been able to disappear from this school.

"Hello Enforcers, thank you so much for coming, I am headmaster Alison Truman, pleasure to make your acquaintance," headmaster Truman holds out her hand for Rose to shake at first and then me.

"Hello headmaster Truman, I'm Enforcer Nico and this is my partner Rose, now could you please tell us from the beginning how exactly did one of your students go missing?"

"Yes of course, let's make our way inside please," headmaster Truman turns around and we follow after her, entering the school building.

Inside, I see several students, all of them girls making their way to their next class. Opening up their lockers and taking out the necessary materials. They're wearing a uniform composed of navy blue skirts, white knee-high socks, black shoes and white dress shirts with a black bow tie and a navy cardigan either tied on their waists or hung on their arms.

The floor was a sort of pinkish marble and the walls of the school were beige and pristine. The more we walked through the school, the more I saw how spacious it was. It had to be considering the students roomed at the school. We made it to the office of the headmaster and entered through the oak door. Her office was big but it still managed to feel cozy and welcoming. She had a huge desk that was a dark chocolate brown with two couches placed in front of her. Rose and I sat down in the couches and Rose took a notepad. The headmaster sat down in her own chair and looked ready to answer any of our questions.

"Now, what can you tell us of Penny Shwartz," Rose got straight to it.

"Well, Penny was a very popular girl around the school. She was captain of the volleyball and soccer team and she was a very talented art student. She was really focused on art, she loved to paint. In fact, she would compete sometimes for the school and so won us a lot of publicity for the arts program and from gallery owners. She was also extremely smart, grades were very important to her. The girl was a role model to the student body, even being president for her grade a year back." Headmaster Truman spoke of Penny Shwartz. "The girl never got in to trouble and she never had a problem with any of the girls at school, she was always looked up to."

"I highly doubt that everything was sunshine and rainbows," Rose said without stopping her note taking.

"E-excuse me?"

"Headmaster, I'll tell you one thing and its that when someone as perfect as Penny comes along, thing is, it isn't really all that perfect. Girls are vicious and when they see a girl as perfect as Penny who seems to be able to do it all, there's bound to be bad blood." Rose elaborated.

"No, there were never any quarrels with Penny..."

"Then she must have done something to get the girls off her back. Nothing is ever as clean cut as this."

"I have to agree with my partner here, something's up, all of this," I waved my hand around, "is too good to be true."

"How was Penny's home life like? Her parents?" Rose questioned the headmaster who seemed a bit dazed.

"Uh, her mother died when she was very young and her father is the CEO of company... her home life was normal, as normal for a kid growing up in a rich family, she had certain expectations that she had to follow through with."

"What of her father, how is he reacting to his daughter's disappearance?" I asked the headmaster.

"He's taken it rather hard, he's overseeing the search for Penny."

"Do you know if we'll be able to talk to him after we're done here?" I inquired.

"I believe so," she responded.

"Now, what of her roommate, and her friends, have they said anything that is of any meaning?" I stood from my seat and walked around the office as I waited for the answer to my question.

"No they haven't..."

"We would like to speak to them, if we may," Rose looked to the headmaster to see if the request would be denied.

"O-of course, I'll call for her roommate and her closest friends."

"Thank you headmaster." Rose smiled her way, but it felt faked.

"Excuse me for one second Enforcers."

The headmaster left the office and I looked to Rose, her face impassive which seemed rather odd.

"So, what are your thoughts on all of this?" I ask as I move closer to her.

"It's too perfect, the girl, she's too perfect and no one is this perfect. How can she be the prom queen and not be hated by some of the student, surely there are one or two envious girls in this school who thought Penny Shwartz wasn't all that." Rose shrugged her shoulders.

"That makes sense, so what, you think a teenage girl is capable of murder?"

"No, but think about it, these girls all of these girls, they're rich, they go to daddy if they ever need anything or money... maybe one of them hired someone?"

"That's absurd, why would anyone go through the trouble much less be that smart about the situation."

"I guess so but we've got to look at every option here Nico, how could a seventeen year old idol student disappear from a very well guarded school?" Rose glanced my way.

"Let's talk to her little friends and see which one of them will crack first." I grunted.

Soon enough the headmaster returned and asked us to follow her to an empty classroom where she set up a private meeting with Penny's roommate first. We were to talk to each person separately until we gathered enough information on Penny. The classroom we were led into had row after row of desks. There was blank blackboard behind us and the blinds on the windows were drawn halfway down.

"Enforcers, this was Penny's roommate, Jane," the headmaster introduced the roommate of Penny.

The girl had red hair that was straight and flowed down like a waterfall, she had green eyes like pine and pale skin with freckles dusting her nose and cheeks.

"Hello Jane," I greet the girl, "my name is Nico, and this is Rose. Would you please come have a seat, me and my partner just need to ask you a few questions about Penny."

Jane nodded her head as she sat down in front of me and Rose.

"So Jane, what was Penny like? Was she nice?" Rose asked Jane, speaking softly.

"Yeah, Penny was nice, she was nice to everyone around her." Jane answered looking down at the desk.

"She wasn't a typical popular girl who was only nice around adults but was actually really mean?" Rose crossed her arms over her chest.

Jane hesitated a second before responding, "she wasn't all perfect like everybody said..."

"And why do you say that?" I asked her.

"She was very self-conscious, something she never told her friends because they always thought her to be confident but she wasn't, at least not all the time... especially around boys, during mixers before leaving our room she always fussed about how she looked which was ridiculous because Penny was so pretty."

"Mixers?" I asked Jane.

"Yeah, headmaster Truman and headmaster Xavier from the all-boys school held these mixers for the boys and girls so that we could become comfortable around the opposite gender."

"Was there anything else that seemed strange or a bit off with Penny?" Rose asked Jane.

"Not really just that she was very self-conscious..." Jane looked down at the desk she was sitting at.

"Okay, thank you Jane." I tell her she's free to go and to send in the next girl.

We went through all of her friends and learned of how she was just a normal girl who did well in school and was really well-liked. Not all of the girls liked Penny but it was never enough to make it seem as if they wanted to hurt her, in fact a lot of the girls were scared about what happened to Penny. Penny was in every aspect of the word, the perfect role model. Rose huffed in annoyance as we finished up with the last girl. She paced the classroom floor, her notepad in hand going back and forth between notes.

"Nothing, absolutely nothing. We've got no leads whatsoever." Rose stopped pacing.

"Not necessarily," I get up from the desk and go over to Rose, taking the notepad from her hand and flipping to the page I desire. "See, all of Penny's friends and even her enemies talked about how Penny acted in the public eye."

"Yes and what of it?" Rose asked.

"Penny was brought up to behave a certain way when in the public eye even at school, Jane seemed to be the only one who told us of Penny's flaws even if they were minor ones, for instance, the fact that Penny got really nervous around boys and was self-conscious."

Rose's eyebrows furrowed as she thought back, possibly through every conversation we had with every girl we interviewed.

"Let's have a talk with daddy and get a feel on strict of a father he was, then we go back and talk to Jane."

"Okay, please don't ever say  _daddy_ because that sounded weird as hell," Rose shook her head and laughed as soon as she saw my expression.

...

Ten minutes later, we were in Mr. Shwartz's private quarters near the school, it seemed as though he decided to take up residence near the school in case his daughter ever came back.

"What can I do for you Enforcers?" Mr. Patrick Shwartz asked us as he fixed himself a cup of alcohol, well the synthetic kind of course. Even if it was synthetic, it still had the affects of actual alcohol although it was more mild.

"We need to ask you a few questions if you don't mind Mr. Shwartz," Rose began.

"Oh yes, about... Penny..."

"How was your daughter raised?" I asked, taking a seat in one of the couches available.

"My daughter had a nurse look after her after my wife died and when I was too busy to watch after her."

"And now, you have a certain image to uphold to the public am I correct?" I asked Penny's father.

"Yes," he spoke slowly, eyeing me, "I do."

"Now, I'm sure Penny was taught from a young age her responsibility while out in public, correct?" Rose asked him.

"Well, I told her she had to act a certain way while out, the media is pretty vicious when they want to be and I didn't need anything to be circulating about my daughter. She was too young to deal with that." Mr. Shwartz looked at a picture of himself and Penny that was hanging down the wall of his quarters. "Penny took it to the heart at times, that she needed to watch what she did at all times. I only meant that when we were out in public but she always did it even when we weren't under watchful eyes."

"Thank you for your time Mr. Shwartz, we have everything we need." I get up from the couch and see Rose giving me a look, probably to ask me why I had abruptly ended the questioning.

"Yes, thank you, we'll get back to you when we have more information, have a good night." Rose followed my lead and we exited the room. Once outside, Rose caught up to me and kept pace with me, "what the hell was that about?"

"We need to go back and talk to Jane, even with her father Penny acted the same, we need to know what made Jane so special that Penny let her guard down around her."

"Fine, I'm trusting you on this.." Rose muttered as she followed me back to the school.

We came up to the front steps and made our way up, walking past the front door and to the office of the headmaster. I knocked on the door twice and waited for it to open.

"Yes?" Headmaster Truman answered the door, opening it fully and looking surprised to see us. "Enforcers, what can I do for you?"

"We need to speak with Jane once more, please, it's important." I ask the headmaster.

"Well, it's late and Jane is a student who has classes the next day..."

"We won't be long, I assure you headmaster," Rose smiled her way.

"If it's important, then I guess I could allow a few minutes with Jane, come along Enforcers," headmaster Truman walked ahead of us up a stairwell. We came to the second floor before going down a long hallway that led to the dorms.

We passed by a few closed doors until we came across another set of stairs and went up two more floors before going down another hallway. Finally, we came at a stop near a closed door and headmaster Truman knocked on it until there was a voice on the other side that said she was coming. The door opened to reveal Jane in her pajamas, the light in her room low with only two lamps turned on and a book set face down on her bed.

"Headmaster Truman? Enforcers Nico and Rose?" Jane asked in confusion, "what's going on?"

"Nothing serious Jane, me and Nico just to need to ask you a few questions is all, I hope you don't mind?" Rose asked politely.

"Okay, sure, it's fine." Jane let us come in and headmaster Truman left us alone with Jane. "So, what do you need to ask me?"

"So we figured something out about Penny," Rose starts.

"And what's that?" Confusion laced Jane's words.

"Penny always seemed to put up a face whenever she was in public, she never revealed her true self, not to anyone, not her friends, not even her father so, what made you so special that she let her guard down with you? Hm?" Rose walked up to Jane and looked at the girl straight in the eyes.

Jane was trembling slightly, her bottom lip quivering just a bit.

"What do you have on her Jane?" Rose asked the redheaded girl.

"I-I don't have anything on Penny... look me and P-Penny were just roommates..."

"Why do I feel like as if you're lying?" Rose paced back and forth.

"I-I'm not, I'm telling the truth-"

"Maybe not the whole truth though," I cut Jane off. "Jane, it's okay to tell us what you know of Penny that no one else knew, you can trust us and you won't get in trouble."

"This could help us Jane, please." Rose pleaded with the girl.

Jane swallowed visibly and looked down at the floor.

"She made me promise not to tell anyone, and I swear, this was the only reason she even let me in in the first place..." Jane took a deep breath before continuing. "As I said before, Penny was very self-conscious and she got easily nervous around boys but it was mostly because if she were found flirting with boys, she always panicked about what the media would write about her. Lots of guys found that off-putting and so called her a prude which didn't help her self-esteem at all. I would console as much as I could... Over summer break, she wrote to me once saying she meet a boy who was nice to her and didn't mind at all her paranoia. I wrote back telling her to be careful around him."

"What was the boy's name?" I asked Jane.

"His name was Matthew Hastings, he was eighteen years old and a senior in high school, not a private one like the ones at our mixers but at a public school back in the city." Jane answered.

"So, she met this boy in the city... what else?" Rose questioned.

"When she came back, Penny was a bit different, she suddenly started to show her true self to the rest of her friends and at first I thought that that was great, it meant she was getting out of her shell but then after awhile she became reserved... even with me..." Jane's eyebrows furrowed and her face scrunched up slightly. "I convinced her to confide in me once more and that was when she told me about Matthew again. The way she talked about him... he sounded controlling and he was very possessive, quick to get jealous... he was so jealous that he even crashed one of our mixers and after it was done, he beat up a boy he had seen talking with Penny."

"So Matthew was a controlling boyfriend?" Rose asked Jane, who nodded her head, "you would go as far as to say he was abusive?"

"Yes, it escalated to the point where he slapped Penny once and after that she told him to leave her alone. She broke up with him, deleted his number and told him to leave her alone or else she would get her father involved. With him out of her life, she felt she could breathe a bit easier now... and then a month ago... he started sending her messages and calling her.. he started to...  _stalk_ her and it was scaring Penny out of her wits. She was about to tell her dad of the situation but... see Penny had a cat at home, Snowball and when she went to tell her dad, a day before she received a package..." Jane stopped and looked away in disgust.

"We opened the package in our room and... oh god- I just..." Jane stopped and took a breath, "her cat... her cat was mailed to her with a note attached to its body... her cat was cut open with its insides out and in the n-note... it said,  _'tell daddy and I'll make sure you're next'..._ Penny cried that night in my arms..." Jane had tears in her eyes and I moved to give her a few tissues.

"What happened next?" I asked her as she took the tissues from my hand.

"A couple of days before her disappearance, she told me that... she felt her time was coming to an end... I-I didn't know what she meant... then I got a note on my desk it said to stay away from Penny, that Penny belonged to  _him._  I didn't know how he even got in to the school!" Jane shook her head as more tears came running down her face. "Now Penny's gone and I don't know if she's even alive and... she  _needs_ to be alive, please, you've gotta save her!"

"We will try our best, but we can't promise you anything," Rose said softly.

I looked over at Rose and she nodded in understanding, we were going to pay Matthew a visit.

* * *

 

We drove to the address we got from Calypso where Matthew supposedly lived. I looked out the window and saw the building where Matthew was at, by Calypso's message. The building wasn't really all that new but it wasn't in ruin either, it looked average, a bit less than average. We got out, our TG's in our hands and made our way to the building, where we entered and made our way up the stairs to the fifth floor. We moved down the hall until we reached the door that led to Matthew's apartment.

From the information Calypso sent, he now lived alone having moved out of his parents house since he graduated early from high school. I looked at Rose and she nodded her head once. I stepped back and got ready to break the door down. I lifted my leg before kicking it down on the door, near the doorknob to make it easier to break down, with as much force as I could muster. Rose went in and held her TG in position, aiming and looking around her surroundings. I entered next and walked into another room. For one second, everything was quiet until we heard the unmistakable muffled scream of a girl in danger.

Rose and I ran to the bedroom and I flung the door open. There we saw a girl who resembled the picture we received when we took on the case of the missing Penny Shwartz. A girl with blonde hair and hazel eyes, with peachy skin and a slim yet tall body. She was tied to a bedpost, a muzzle around her mouth, her hair in disarray and tears running down her face. She had on revealing clothes, probably put on her by Matthew and she had blood on the inside of her thighs.

"Nico," Rose said in a shaky voice, her mask of the emotionless Enforcer falling, "she's been raped."

I untie Penny and carry her bridal style, "we've gotta get her out of here, call for back up- Rose!"

A guy with light brown curly hair and brown eyes is standing there with a sword in his hands. He swings and Rose barely ducks the blow, she stumbles and falls on the floor.

"You are not taking her away from me, I  _need_ her in my life, Penny belongs to me. She belongs to me!" Matthew screams. "Ever since I met her I knew, I  _knew_ that we belonged together... no one is gonna have her do you hear me! NO ONE IS GOING TO HAVE HER!"

I looked over at Rose and saw her studying Matthew and the way he was holding the sword; which I had no idea how he got it in the first place.

"No one gets to have her! Only me! You hear me Penny! You belong to me!"

In a flash, Rose was up on her feet. She slammed her elbow right in Matthew's face, momentarily dazing him. She quickly disarmed him and took the sword from his hand. In no time, she had the tip of the sword on his neck, daring him to move.

"You're crazy buddy," Rose grunted.

"B-but... I belong to Penny... I met her and- and- she... she was so beautiful and... she- I became her slave... I became her servant... I had to be the only one to have her!"

"That's rough buddy, but it looks like you're going to have to let go of Penny, for one thing, you're a big bowl of crazy." Rose said sarcastically.

"I'll call for backup, think you can handle him?" I ask Rose just before I leave.

"Yeah, just hurry."

...

Matthew was transported to Attica Annex Facility and Penny was brought back to her father where Jane was waiting for her. Penny hugged her father tightly, crying before hugging Jane, and for a brief moment, Jane's and Penny's foreheads touched as they looked each other in the eyes. I studied them from afar and watched how Penny hung on to Jane's hand. Paramedics soon took Penny away to have her examined and to discuss treatment. Her hue had become just a bit cloudy and she needed treatment to get her hue down.

"So, Matthew became obsessed with Penny, saying he had become a slave to her... doing things only for her like some kind of servant, serving her and only her... or so he says." Rose shrugged her shoulders as she looked over her notes.

"The guy was crazy," I shook my head.

"Well, a job well done, we got the girl back home safely, am I right? So good job partner."

"Yeah, same to you..." I looked over at Rose and raised a single eyebrow, "by the way, how did you know to disarm a guy with a sword, which by the way I found he got on the black market."

"I learned to fight with a sword, I came from the States remember? Back when I was sixteen, well before that I learned how to fight with different swords, especially since I lived with an aunt who loved to travel and loved cultural." Rose smiled softly.

I realized, this was the first time I had an actual conversation with Rose even though we worked together for the better of three years already.

"I know how to fight with swords, and well I even have my own dojo..." I looked over at Rose who raised a single eyebrow, "want to come over one day and duel?"

Rose smirked my way, "definitely, let's see what you're made of."

* * *

 

I went to my door absolutely tired from today and deciding to do the report tomorrow when I went back to the office. I opened the door and stepped inside my apartment, the lights turning on automatically. Right when I entered, there was a yellow note hanging on a white piece of string, that dangled from the ceiling of my apartment. I plucked the note, my eyebrows furrowing as I looked at the note and wondered who the hell could've put this.

_Look at you! You're nothing but a servant, doing whatever the big boss tells you to do! Which is why... you'll never see me coming!_

Who the hell had been in my apartment?


	5. Never Let Your Guard Down

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone who is reading this story, following it, giving it kudos and leaving comments. Thanks guys, your guys are awesome, here's a new chapter, happy reading!

_Never Let Your Guard Down_

I can hear her.

Her soft moans. A small squeal of delight. A breathless gasp as I bury myself deep inside her.

I run my hands down her body, feeling her soft skin. So soft and smooth.

_"Mmmm, James,"_ she purrs.

I feel her tighten around me and I groan at the sensation. She feels so damn  _good._ I love her, I do. I realize that now that I love her. I can feel her run her hands through my hair when suddenly she grips my hair hard, letting out a particularly loud moan. Sex is slow, not fast and carnal, it's slow and sensual. It's passionate...except, she isn't exactly looking at me. Not like how she usually does whenever we have sex. She's not looking at me and I don't know why.

"Danny," I call out to her.

She ignores me and a small part of me feels a bit hurt.

"Love," I try again, "look at me."

Look at me. Please, look at me while we make love. Why isn't she looking at? But she stubbornly keeps her face to the side, she ignores me and I'm hurt that she would do that to me.

She's never done something to purposely hurt me.

"Danny," I say with a little bit more force, but she doesn't even flinch. "Fucking look at me!"

I stop my movements and I can feel her bucking her hips, wanting me to resume again in our lovemaking.

"Why?" She asks quietly. "You're not going to like what you see."

A sense of dread slowly seeps into my bones as she looks off to the side. She's stopped bucking her hips and instead tightens her legs around me. There's something wrong with this picture, I know it but I just can't seem to put my finger on it.

Danny snaps her head to me so fast I flinch before taking in a good look at her, and I stare in horror at Danny. Her face is torn up, well half of it is. The left side of her face has her skin falling off, a rusted car piece stuck on her head. Her lips are cut, broken, bruised. I can feel a scream welling up inside me but I never release it. I'm frozen in place and all I want to do is get the hell away from her, but I can't. She's got a tight grip on me and doesn't seem too keen on letting me go.

"D-Danny?" My voice trembles.

Danny laughs mockingly. "Tell me Percy, do you  _like_  fucking the dead?"

"Stop!" I struggle to get away from her.

"Why did I have to meet  _you_?" Danny asks in an accusing tone.

"Let me go!" I yell in fear, panic seizing me.

"I am  _dead_ because of you!" Danny shouts. "Your parents are dead because of you!  _You_  are the cause of everything! You  _killed_ me!"

"No! I didn't- I d-didn't mean to!"

_"Why?!"_

I want to get out, get away from her, I  _need_  to get away from her!

"Leave me alone!" I shout.

Her body soon starts to bleed out. Blood is seeping out of her body and on to the bed, she's slowly disintegrating into the bed. A horrible wail leaves her mouth before she's soon nothing but a pool of blood.

I bolt up and open my eyes to the dark room.

_It was just a dream..._

It was only just a dream. I was dreaming. None of it was real.

My breathing is irregular, as is my pulse. I've got sweat on my forehead and behind my back. I'm alert and I don't think I'll be going to sleep soon. I was just dreaming but that didn't stop what was running through my mind. Dream Danny had been right. I was the cause of her death and maybe...even the indirect cause of my family's death as well. I rubbed a hand down my face. I wasn't going back to sleep, that was for sure.

...

Sunlight hits my eyes and slowly I start to wake up. Again.

I had thought I wouldn't have been able to go back to sleep but it seemed like my mind and body had said otherwise. I rub the sleep out of my eyes and look around the room. Piper is up and about, waking everyone up. I stay still for awhile sitting on my bed and think back to the horrible dream I had in the middle of the night about Danny. I didn't think I could conjure up such a dream. I felt a shiver run down my spine and my heart clench in my chest.

"Come on Percy, time to get ready," Piper takes me out of my stupor and pushes me onto my feet.

We all make our way downstairs where we take a shower first before going to breakfast. After living here for three and plus weeks already, some things became routine. As I feel the water run down my body I can't help but think back to my nightmare. It wasn't the first time I had a nightmare concerning Danny's death but it was never as grotesque as the one from last night. Lately, it seems like my dreams just keep getting worse. I've got no idea what to do about them...

I shut the water and dry myself with the towel, patting down my body. Pushing my troubled thoughts to the back of my mind I start to change into clean clothes, then I go to the dining room, where at least half of the hounds are just beginning to eat breakfast. Jeremy has yet to make an appearance.

Over the last couple of weeks, he has taught us how to box, kickbox, how to think fast on our feet and look for escape routes. You never know when it could come in handy. He sharpened our minds to sometimes think outside of the box, and even let us read a few past cases that Enforcers had to work on with their hounds. Jeremy had told us that each case was different but that most of the time, the Enforcers usually solved it before any bloodshed could be spilled. Talk about preventing crime before it happened...if only they could have done that with my family...with Danny.

We've learned how to use real guns and the issued TG guns given to both Enforcers and hounds whenever they're on a case. Jeremy told us that he taught us a precaution. After all, a lot of criminals got some of their weapons off the black market. In fact, there were a lot of things going on underground. Things being sold and shipped off, such as; alcohol, drugs, weapons, technology. It wasn't all bad either, art was also smuggled in, books and even music. Because Anna was programmed a certain way, things sort of changed, and what changed was creativity. Art had to be approved by Anna before it could be presented to the public and to show for it, there was very little art around, in fact it was almost nonexistent. For writers is almost the same deal, books had to be approved in case there was anything harmful presented in them. The only books Percy had ever seen were informative or do-it-yourself books.

There was no adventure in books, love, mystery, crime; absolutely nothing. The magic in books just wasn't there anymore. So there were mostly never any books. Ernest Hemingway, Emily Dickinson, Edgar Allan Poe, Shakespeare, F. Scott Fitzgerald; they were all gone. Or at least not allowed in Attica. As for music, it seemed a bit more lenient. Bands were given a list of things to sing about, but besides that creativity was mostly found in bands. Again, as with art and writing, the band had to be approved by Anna to be able to perform for crowds. If you weren't approved, the group would have to disband and all of the members would have to find jobs elsewhere. Of course Anna would help by suggesting a few jobs that you were best for, depending on your aptitude and how high you had scored on a test you took towards the end of high school.

Whatever the case, Attica and Tribeka were both very sheltered. And a bit controlled as well. I saw a few things and learned a bit about the community and found myself doubting if having such a controlled city was a good thing or not. Sure crime was controlled and things ran smoothly but it made me wonder about a few things. It made me question whether or not it was such a good idea to have a very controlled and monitored city. Not to mention that the city, it seemed to lack a bit of freedom, making things seem bland. It lacked personality, if a community could have one...

"Perce," Piper once again startled me out of my thoughts. "Are you okay?" She looked at me, her eyebrows furrowing and concern filling her orbs.

"Yeah, just in a bit of a daze is all," I smiled weakly at Piper.

"Okay..." she didn't sound convinced but she didn't pester on.

I sat down next her and Amber was soon sitting down next to me. Over the past weeks, I branched out more and learned a few things about everyone in the house. Leo had apologized to me after the second night being here, saying he was sorry and that he was an idiot jumping to conclusions. Things between us after that got a lot better and I found out we had a lot in common, especially when it came to humor. Apollo was a huge flirt, but he was a nice guy all around. Luke had a bit of a snappy attitude at times but other than that he was alright and was sometimes funny. Amber was sweet and kind, and she was very talented, especially when it came to writing songs. Clarisse had a temper and seemed to only wear a permanent scowl on her face. Silena was a sweetheart I couldn't believe she was actually one of us. Adam was a prankster and he had this mischievous air about him but he was cool to hang around with. Mason, John, Melissa, Joanna, Beth, and Noah were all cool as well. I learned after my first week that they hadn't met there partners yet but that was because they were busy working a job and couldn't make it so they would meet their Enforcers after this month ended.

Speaking of which, the month was close to finishing, just one more week I believe and then we would all go back to live our Enforcers... That meant that  _he_ was going to be there too. I would have to see him again and live with him for who knew how long. I formed a fist with my left hand. Just thinking about how he looked at me...like I was trash or worse, it made my blood boil. Not to mention some part of me felt disgusted that I had even felt anything at all for him, that I had thought of him as attractive. All I could see now were those black orbs and how much I wanted to bash his face in.

I exhaled deeply through my nose. No reason to be getting worked about someone I shouldn't even care about. I forked my eggs a bit too harsh and the sound of the metal fork hitting the platter made a shrill noise making Amber look my way. I just smiled at her and she reciprocated the action before going back to writing on a piece of paper. I calmed myself down, today, I would not be thinking about Danny or my Enforcer whom I refused to name, mostly because I wanted to forget his name. Today, I would be focus on whatever lessons Jeremy taught us.

After breakfast all fifteen of us go up the stairs with Jeremy following after us, now that we know our way around the place he doesn't need to chaperone us as much. We go up to the third floor and enter the huge gym we've become so familiar with. Jeremy has told us to split up and focus on whatever we needed to work on. Wherever we had our weak points, we had to focus on them and work on getting them stronger. I decided I was still feeling a bit angry from breakfast not to mention that I was feeling creeped out by the dream I had had, so I went to one of the punching bags that were hanging. Strapping on protective gloves, I exhaled through my mouth and began to punch the bag, taking out whatever emotion I was feeling. Whatever was bothering I let go once I started to hit the bag more.

I tried to empty my mind, to let go of my thoughts so that I could be able to focus on only punching the punching bag in front of me. I had cleared my thoughts from  _him_ and from Danny. I had cleared my thoughts from whatever guilt I was feeling over my family. I cleared my mind from everything, or at least I had tried to, for a certain memory stuck and latched on to me. My eyes swim and it's like I've gone back in time. I'm suddenly standing in my old room and I look at the calender hanging up my wall. I'm sixteen again and I know what I'm about to do.

I had been thinking this over for well of two months. I wanted to skip my injection this morning and not take it. I had noticed how my mother and father would skip it as well but they didn't know that I knew. I wanted to know why my parents would skip the injection, which wasn't something that was that big of a deal but it didn't mean it was to be taken lightly. I had heard how the Enforcers didn't take the injections or scientists that went to work for AECPC. I had also heard how the doctors would take a big dose of the injection but only before doing a surgery. It was my third year in high school and I was suddenly finding out about a few things that went out in Attica.

The injection that we all had to take was so that it would numb our emotions, not completely, I mean we were mindless and emotionless robots but enough so that we wouldn't have the impulse to do anything rash. The injections would rein in our emotions so that they wouldn't be out of control. Which is why before surgeries, doctors would take them so that emotions wouldn't hinder their consciousness or block out basic knowledge because panic seized them, preventing them to save a person's life when they went under the knife. The Enforcers wouldn't take it because they had trained to keep their emotions and hues in control, especially with their line of work.

I look at myself in my full-length mirror and notice how I'm shorter and have less muscle on me. I look younger, more carefree and happy even though on the inside I'm scared shitless because of what I'm about to do. I've got a stuffed animal in my hand, courtesy of Tyson and I leave my room to go downstairs to get breakfast before leaving for school. I open the door to my room and step into the hallway, getting closer to the stairwell that would lead me to the kitchen. Right before I reach the stairwell is the panel where I would need to press any part of my hand or arm against the screen, feeling a pinch where the injection would given. Just a few more steps and I'll be in front of Anna...I'm scared to the bone thinking of what would happen to me of things went wrong. Would I be given instructions to go to therapy?

As I got closer, my breathing quickened until it completely stopped as I was standing right in front of Anna.

**"Good morning Percy, time for your injection,"** Anna greeted me.

"Morning Anna," I answered and hesitated for a second before putting the arm of the teddy bear in my hands against the panel. Faintly, I heard the soft sound of the injection being given.

**"All finished,"** Anna said going back to her home screen.

I took the teddy bear away from the panel and stared in disbelief at Anna. She...had completely bought it. It had actually worked? It had actually worked! Today would be my first day without having taken the injection...today I would get to see how different things would be...

In hindsight, I guess I should've known something was off when that happened. I didn't realize then but Anna was a smart system that could tell when someone had gotten their injection or not. For two years I had gone on, not taking the injection and thinking everything was fine. Not for a second did I think that me not taking my injections would have any consequences at all. My parents or friends didn't suspect or see anything different about me. In fact, I didn't even feel any different, except that my true emotions were a lot more powerful and I had to control them so that no one would take notice. Other than that, I felt pretty liberated. In fact, it made me start think about how different things would be like if everyone in Attica didn't take their injections.

It also made me notice a few things. It made me actually open my eyes and see how controlled Attica was, how limited and monitored it was. Things felt a bit too perfect here and a feeling welled deep inside me, coiling as I kept on observing the place I called home. Some of the things we did, I started to question them and I think that was what sort of marked me as a dead man. I started to question our lifestyle and because of that, I believe things went downhill so fast. Two years was enough to change my whole perspective on the life we all lived inside the walls of the city of Attica.

"Well, let's get moving to the shooting range," Jeremy's voice cut through my memory and I stopped punching the punching bag, sweat was running down my back and front, and had accumulated on my forehead. "Let's get going guys."

Everyone stopped what they were doing as well, taking their gear; whatever gear they had on and dropping it in a pile near the double doors. I took off the gloves and wiped my brow with the front of my shirt. I followed after the crowd and went down the stairs. We passed by the living room and went out through a set of doors that led to the patio and the backyard of the house. We made our way to the barn that was a yards away from the house. We had been practicing there since the first week we came here. We learned to shoot and aim the TG guns, they were easy to control and so we barely practiced with them. What we did practice with were actual guns.

"Now, take your positions everyone and remember what I taught you." Jeremy advised us.

We each got in out private little space and I saw that Jeremy already had the targets hung up before us. To my left was a small table and on it were two handguns; a Ruger MK III . 22 LR and the Desert Eagle 44 Magnum. I also had two semi auto rifles; a 12 gauge shotgun and a Ruger 10/22 .22 LR. Jeremy had taught us about the different types of guns, how to clean them and reload. He made us pull them apart just to fix them back up again telling us we had to know every part of the gun.

I picked up the Desert Eagle and as soon as my hand made contact with the cold metal, I felt a surge of power shoot from my hand down my spine. I felt in control, I felt calm and collected. I cocked the handgun, releasing the safety and gripping it tightly, pointing the gun to the direction of the target in front of me. My finger hovered over the trigger. I exhaled slowly as if I was in no rush. All around me I could hear the others firing off their own guns but the sounds were slowly ebbing away, becoming nothing but white noise. I kept both of my hands on the gun steady, made sure I kept my feet planted, my arm muscles were taut as Jeremy had said they needed to be. Once you fired a gun for the first time, the impact of firing it could be enough to knock you off your feet if you weren't being careful.

The first time I had shot a gun here; the gun had felt so damn heavy.

**BAM!**

When I had fired, I felt as if my arms would fall off and I almost lost my footing. The sound had been loud, deafening. I could hear the pounding in my ears for two good minutes before I looked over at the target. I couldn't believe my eyes, straight ahead was the target with one bullet straight to the chest. The perfect shot. I was shocked and as I looked over at Jeremy, who was still inspecting the target, we made eye contact. His eyes were unreadable and I wondered if that was a good thing or bad. I didn't have time to dwell on it for long because he soon smiled a wide smile and made his way over to me, telling me I had potential.

I fired the gun, feeling the aftereffects of shooting it on my arms, I didn't lose my balance anymore and my arms had been worked on to make sure they were strong enough, so they didn't affect me as much as before. My shot landed straight on the target's head and I shot off more rounds. Soon, my gun was empty and I inspected my target, three shots in the head, two in the chest straight where the heart was. I put my handgun down and grabbed the 12 gauge shotgun.

The bigger the gun got, the more powerful the aftereffects. When I had first shot a shotgun I got knocked off my feet and landed on my butt. Not to mention that I didn't even hit the target. My arms hurt so bad I wanted them off my body, my hands ached and I could still feel the vibration in my fingertips as I tried to get feeling back into my hands. My whole being burned with embarrassment but I wasn't the only one to get knocked off my feet. After practicing with the shotgun a few times I finally got used to the effects of firing the gun.

I aimed the shotgun at my next target and again I feel the same powerful feeling inside me. My fingertips ache to pull the trigger, I feel as if an electrical current is passing through me, my hairs stand on end. My heart slows down, calm and controlled as I pull the trigger and feel the gun brought to life in my hands.

**BOOM!**

The effect of it being released is instantaneous, I feel as though my arms have gone slack but I push through it and hold the gun steady. I shot my target, not in the desired place but it wasn't too bad. Compared to how it was before I started, this was improvement.

"Alright, let's give it a rest," Jeremy called out, bringing me out of my daze. "Let's have lunch."

I put the safety on my gun and unload it before putting it back on the table and making my way out of the barn. The air outside is cool, a slight breezing is blowing by making it bearable to be under the sun's heat. We walked back into the house and walked over to the dining room where lunch awaited us. I sat next to Piper as always while Leo was on my other side.

"Dude, you've gotta try the corn," Leo nudged me with his elbow. I looked over at him and saw him stuffing his face with corn on the cob. "It's amazing," he said through mouthfuls of corn.

"Leo, manners," Piper chided him as she got into our conversation.

"Whatever mom," Leo waved her off.

"So Perce, looks like you got better," Piper ignored Leo and turned to me.

"Better at?" I asked her as I started to fill my plate with food.

"You know, better at shooting," she elaborated.

"Oh, yeah I guess I did," I shrugged my shoulders.

"Better? The dude's like a prodigy or something," Leo butt in.

"I'm alright," I try to downplay my skills.

"Alright? Percy you're the best out of all of us," Adam got in the conversation, "you're deadly when you have a gun in your hands." I looked down at my plate, I didn't like the attention I was getting. I usually associated guns with murder and I was no murderer. "Look," Adam spoke to me, as if he could read my mind, "it's not a bad thing, guns aren't bad, if you know how to use them and you're sane in the head, you won't hurt anyone with a gun unless you mean to. Remember that, don't let you potential go to waste. Besides, you never when your talent could come in handy, might even save your life one day."

For some reason I felt as if there was a double meaning to what Adam was saying. I wouldn't hurt anyone with a gun unless I meant to but that wasn't going to happen. I wasn't going to hurt anyone period. But some part of my brain chided me for being foolish. I was now a hound, hurting people would now become my line of work. I was naive if I thought I was never going to hurt anyone. Whether I liked it or not, I was now condemned to live a life where I was free but not truly free and where to survive against those crazy people that roamed Attica, I would need to use everything I had learned here.

After lunch, we go back outside where we run a few laps around the track before having to do the obstacle course Jeremy had set up for us. I start off slowly, only jogging at first as I set up my pace. Regulating my breathing I start to pick up the pace. Soon enough, I'm passing a few of the others by. My mind starts to drift and wander off, thinking about different things. Never settling on something. That is until the memory of a girl with bubblegum pink hair, azure eyes and fair skin pooped into my mind. There she was, my girl, my Danny. She was wearing a blue-green, v-neck t-shirt that was tucked under her black, pleated skirt. She kitty cat stockings; she had just bought them and she absolutely adored them having found them on sale at a thrift shop, and black high-heeled boots. Her pink hair was tied up in a high ponytail and wrapped around her head just before her front bangs was a black bandana.

I was leaning against my car waiting for her to come down from her apartment so that we could leave for the movies. My heart was pounding in my chest because I had an ulterior motive. As I saw her make her way to me, I felt my heart beat just a little faster, she always seemed to have that affect on me. She smiled brightly and wide, showing off her adorable gapped tooth.

"James," she said as soon as she got close enough before kissing me on the lips.

"Hey beautiful, ready to go?" I winked at her, and she giggled softly, a blush rising on her cheeks.

"Yeah, let's go, I'm super excited to see this movie. I read the reviews and so far, everyone is saying it's a good movie to watch. It got a four out of five stars and on the metric scale it was at 87%, not bad at all huh?" Danny was quick to make conversation.

I opened the car door and she slid inside before I went to the driver's side and got in. "Not bad at all," I agreed with her, "good to know I picked out a good movie." I smiled at her.

"Seems like you've got good taste huh?" She teased.

"I like to believe I've got the best taste," I wink at her before starting the car and driving off.

We watched the movie and like she had said, it was pretty good. After that we had dinner where, as we sat together and started to talk about our day my hands started to sweat and I was slowly doubting myself on what I had wanted to ask her, fearing rejection. I mustered whatever courage I had left before I changed my mind and interrupted her.

"And so, it was so funny, I swear I started dying at this part, he-" Danny was laughing as she recounted a story that had happened during work to one of her coworkers.

"Danny?" I call to her.

Danny stops talking and looks at me, "yeah?"

"Um," this was it, no backing down, no chickening out, I swallowed thickly before continuing. "Danny, uh, I-I want to ask if you...um," I inhaled deeply, "if you want to move in with me?" I look her straight in the eyes. "I want you to move in with me and- I think it's- no, I feel like it's time we took our relationship to the next leve-" I was knocked back into my chair as I felt a heavy weight on my chest and lap.

"Oh, James!" Danny squealed, "you're asking me to move in with you? Of course baby, of course I want to move in! I love you James," Danny hugged me tightly, not wanting to let go. People all around us were staring but I couldn't give a damn. I was too damn happy.

I'm climbing a rope up to touch the bell that's hung up on the beam supported by pillars on the side. My arms are on fire by now, I finished the laps and was well halfway through with the obstacle course. How happy I had been before, with Danny by my side. I had fallen in love with her and I regret not going with her when she left the apartment that fateful day. I also regret disappearing right after I caught wind of the news. I packed my things, left the apartment signing off on my lease and laid low. I had met her family before and briefly wondered if they cared about what happened to me.

I didn't go to the funeral, I couldn't. If I did, her family would surely ask questions. My heart broke at the thought of not being able to attend the funeral or not being able to see her once more before she was six feet under. When I heard that her car had crashed and she didn't make it...I lost it. I lost all control and I cried like never before. I felt as if my heart had shattered and I was breaking to pieces all over again.

"Hey Perce, are you okay?" I look to the voice that shook me from my train of thought. It was Luke.

"Huh?" Because I wasn't listening, I was confused as to what he wanted from me.

"I asked if you were okay?" He grunted, a scowl now forming on his face.

"I'm fine, why do you ask?"

"Because, I've seen that look on your face..." Luke looks at me straight in the eye.

Everyone else is doing the obstacle, it's just him and me standing at the finish. I wonder what he means by the look on my face. I guess it was evident on my features that I was confused about what he was talking about because he rolled his eyes and stepped forward just a bit.

"I meant, at night, I've woken up to you having your nightmares and you always have  _that_ look on your face, as if you thought everything you did was wrong...as if everything was your fault... I'm just asking if you're okay," Luke looked at me, an unreadable expression on his visage.

I swallowed thickly, I thought I had hidden my problems from the others well...if Luke knew, who else knew?

"I'm not going to say anything but...just remember, it wasn't your fault." I looked over at the blond, my eyes wide. "You said you didn't kill your family, so you didn't and I believe you...now. Anyone can see clearly how traumatized you look whenever you think about them, so...it wasn't your fault and don't beat yourself up about it."

My mouth felt like cotton, I felt like I couldn't speak but I summoned whatever I could and gave him a weak smile, "thank you."

Luke was right, it wasn't my fault...at least not directly. But that didn't stop me from feeling guilty about Danny's death. On the day of my arrest, I had been coming back after paying my respects to Danny's grave. It had been a year since her death five days ago when I walked into my apartment and found a note hanging from the ceiling.

_Percy, have you learned nothing? And I would've thought that after the death of your whore you'd know better. You should never get too comfortable...you should have never let your guard down. Now, you're screwed!_

"Percy Jackson! Put your hands in the air, you are under arrest for the murder of Sally Jackson, Poseidon Jackson and Tyson Jackson. You have the right to remain silent-"

_No way...this couldn't be happening..._

"Anything you say or do can be used against you in the court of law. You have the right to an attorney-"

_He did this...he k-killed- he's responsible for... Danny!_

My mind screamed to escape but the Enforcers were already by my side when I finally decided to snap back into the moment. It was done. My fate was sealed. I was heading to my death. And all because of one unknown person screwing with my life. God, you must really have it out for me huh?


	6. The Hounds Are Back

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone, thank you all for the kudos and the lovely comments, here's the next chapter to this story, enjoy.  
> Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson and The Olympians

_The Hounds Are Back_

_Percy_

So today is the big day. We are finally going back to the city of Attica where we will be living alongside our Enforcers until who knows how long. I'm not sure how I'm feeling...all I know is, I hope to god that my luck doesn't get any worse than it's already been.

I know for a fact I'm anxious... I'm anxious to see what  _his_ face and reaction is going to be like after we're left alone in the shared apartment... I'm pretty sure he isn't going to like living with me, after all, he did give me that look right before I was shipped off with the rest of the hounds to Jeremy's place.

Last night we had a dinner, a pretty big dinner at that. Jeremy had said he wanted to celebrate and say goodbyes before we left the next morning, up and early too, and left the place for good. We would not be back at Jeremy's place and we would not be keeping contact with the old man. It was kind of sad, since I had grown a bit fond of him. He somewhat reminded me of like a grandfather figure and he was no longer going to be in touch, I was no longer going to be able to see him and it...well it was sad.

All fifteen of us waited outside of the huge palace we had called home for the month, waiting for the train to come and for Enforcer Bald-Head to come pick us up and take us away from this place. This place where we had honed our skills both physically and mentally, where we had learned everything we could from one awesome teacher. Where we would take the things we learned here and apply them out there, in Attica so that we wouldn't get killed on the job in which we had chosen, for better or worse.

Piper stood next to me, talking about something but I had tuned her out, not because I didn't want to listen to her but because I wanted to take one last look at the place. I wanted to remember this wonderful place. Sure, it had been annoying as hell to get up early every morning and then do some grueling workouts and learn how to fight and shoot, only to go to bed all sore, but it had been liberating. Here, we weren't monitored and I never felt like we were being watched. Here, things seemed more calm and I felt content to stay here. Heck, I wouldn't have minded staying here with Jeremy and helping out the next hounds that would come next time for their training.

"...so I thought it would be a good idea that on the first night when we get back to the city of Attica and we're alone with our Enforcers we should, you know, try to get to know them...maybe, I don't know try to strike up conversation, find common interests..." Piper was saying.

"Yeah, I'm sure it'll be easy for you to do that with your Enforcer," I nodded my head as I tuned her back in.

"Yeah and hey, maybe you could...er, find common ground wi-" Piper started only for me to cut her off.

"I don't think so Pipes, besides, I saw the way he looked at me. I got the feeling he really didn't like me and isn't going to make the effort  _to_ like me."

Piper closed her mouth and stayed silent for a minute before opening it, but she never to got to say anything because just then, a train was approaching. The small and sleek silver train came to a silent stop in front of us. All fifteen of us looked back toward Jeremy and the old man only smiled kindly at us.

"Well, looks like this is the end of the road for us, I'll be seeing y'all another time...maybe another life," came the cryptic words from the old man. "You kids take care of yourselves and you make sure you remember everything I taught you."

"We will, don't worry old man, we won't forget," John said.

Soon, we all said our goodbyes and slowly marched to the train. As I was picking up my bag, Jeremy came up to me and stopped me.

"Percy," Jeremy said as soon as he reached me.

"Yeah old man?" I looked to Jeremy, a single eyebrow raised.

"Something's special about you boy, you got a natural talent with the gun, it's amazing. And despite that almost everyone blames you for the murder of your family, you have a goodness in your heart...don't let anything change that." Jeremy looked out the fields for a second before turning to look at me, smiling softly.

"What do you mean?" I asked him, my eyebrows furrowing.

What did he mean about a goodness in my heart? And what would make me change?

"You be careful out there son, take good care of yourself."

Just as I was about to say something, Enforcer Hard-Ass shouted in my direction, "hey! Dog, get your ass in this train! Now!"

I grabbed my bag and jogged toward the train, looking back over my shoulder to see Jeremy looking at me, an unreadable look on his visage. Once inside, the doors shut and I made my way to sit next to Piper. As I sat down, Adam gave me a weird look but I shrugged it off, besides, my mind was on other things. What did Jeremy mean when he said to not let anything change my...heart? It didn't make any sense...

I shrugged it off and just put it as Jeremy being well, his unreadable self. I mean, who knew why he did things half of the time. Sitting back and getting comfortable, I let my mind wander off, thinking about old memories.

Like the time I had spent my first New Year's with Danny after my family's murder. I didn't think I could find it in me to be happy once again but it was possible. We had spent Christmas Day together, where I had given her a pair of earrings, sapphire gems. I had saved up my money to get her that present and she loved it, she rarely took those earrings off.

I also remembered the time I had gone to the zoo with Tyson, it was his first time, and my parents. Tyson loved every single part of the zoo and he was so happy that day. His favorite part had been seeing the tigers and watching them laze around. My mom and dad were so happy then too.

There was that time my dad had taught me to drive. He wore a life-vest while I drove and it was the most ridiculous thing ever, mom had a picture of it hung up on the fridge. She died laughing when she saw my dad come out of the car looking all pale; I wasn't even that bad of a driver! My dad exaggerated.

So many happy memories...kind of wish I could go back in time just so...I wouldn't live in this time. My situation sucked, big time. I was alone in this world...I was alone and I was probably going to die alone too. Sure, I mean, I had friends...with the other hounds I met but...I would probably leave this earth alone with no one who truly loved me. It kind of made all of those happy memories just sting a little.

My nightmares were getting worse...first it had been about Danny but now...it was also about my family. I didn't know how to handle them, didn't even know why all of a sudden I was getting them now? I chalked it up to me being on the run for three years and not being able to really have the time to come to terms with either of their deaths. Either way, those dreams freaked me out by how vivid and real they sometimes felt or seemed.

I shook my head, I needed to stop thinking so pessimistically. I had gotten a second chance at life. I could've ended up in prison with daily doses of medication coming my way to keep my sane...or insane more like it. I could have failed that exam...

I thought back to my luck these past three years since my escape from my old house. Marisol had helped me escaped and as luck would have it, knew of some people who would take me the rest of the way. Adam had given me advice on how to get jobs without needing more than just my birth certificate, no fingerprints needed. He had given me tips on how to lay low and to always keep moving while Leo had fixed me up with tech that helped me get around the city. I had met Danny on a stroke of luck and we had spent a wonderful, loving year together...

All of this...was luck...unimaginable luck. It was both good and horribly bad luck, but luck either way. And it all came to end...because of one sick person. Who that person was, I had no idea but I had heard his voice...that had to count for something, right? I could try to look for the sick bastard...now that I was officially a hound. Certainly I could gain some sort of connections to help me find the one responsible for the deaths of everyone I ever cared about. I mean, I was going to be working on some cases that no doubt could very well lead me to that one person. Right then and there, I vowed to get revenge on that bastard who murdered my family and my love. I was going to get my revenge.

My head started to pound and I thought maybe I should rest while on this train ride back to civilization. I sank down lower in my seat, I didn't want to think about anything or anyone and decided, why not have a little nap. Closing my eyes, I didn't expect to fall asleep so quick but I did. I also didn't expect to see those eyes in my dreams.

Those dark brown eyes...that soft (I could only imagine how soft it was and god, did I hate myself for even wanting so badly to touch it) porcelain skin, that dark, black hair...what the actual fuck? Was I  _really_ dreaming about this guy right now? Seriously? I was going to have to live with him for who knows how long. I was going to have to see his ugly mug (okay, so he's not ugly and I'm just being mean) every day and the only escape from him is in my dreams but even then I see him there? Just what the hell is up with my head?  _Seriously?_

Was fate trying to be funny?

In my dream, he was standing before me, but his face...for some reason in looked scared, frightened. The angle in which I was looking at him made me feel as if I was laying down or something. He came closer to me and although his voice was a bit muffled, I still heard how shaky he sounded.

"Percy,  _please, please_ tell me you're okay..." a sob broke out of him and for some odd reason, I felt the strong urge to comfort him. "I'm sorry...so sorry...so sorry...so sor-"

_Why are you sorry?_

I had wanted to ask but I couldn't voice out my question, my tongue felt like dead weight inside my mouth. I wanted to ask him why it looked like he was close to crying, why was he repeating sorry for? Why did he look scared? Why was worried about me? I snorted, this has got to be some joke right? Something was wrong and was messing with my dreams...that had to be it...no way would he ever cry over me. No way. Yet, as I continued to dream, I could see him reaching out and just before he touched my cheek, I could practically feel myself stirring a bit at the thought of him touching me.

...cy...

No, stop it, he hated me, I needed to stop thinking about him and yet...

...rcy...

Here he was, looking at me with such sadness.

..ercy...

Oh god, how I remember seeing him the first time.

...Percy..

All I wanted to do was kiss him on the li-

"Percy? Wake up, we're almost there." I heard a familiar voice call after me.

Soon, the image of Nico di Angelo was starting to disappear and he was fading out of my mind, and with it, came some form of disappointment.

"Percy?" It was Piper, she was calling me.

I groaned out loud as I slowly opened my bleary eyes. "Yes?" My voice sounded thick with sleep.

"We're almost there...we're almost back to the city of Attica."

Great. Time to meet with my Enforcer...

I ignored some small part of me that felt excited at seeing him once again. I ignored it and denied it, hell would freeze over before I ever admitted to being happy to see him again.

* * *

_Nico_

"All I'm doing is challenging you to a duel... or what? You're too much of a pansy to take me on?" Rose smirked my way, teasing me.

"You're going to lose," I say before shoving a fork-full of waffles in my mouth.

"Says you," she snorts.

Rose and I worked on three more cases after our first one was a success. The black haired girl quickly became a friend of mine and of my other friends as well. We had hung out a couple of times since then, slowly becoming close, close enough for her to figure out me and Will had a thing going on. She would tease me endlessly, today was no exception. But despite her teasing and the comfortable atmosphere around us, my mind was on other things.

Ever since I read that note that proved that somehow, someone got into my apartment to write me that creepy note...I didn't feel safe. Not anymore. I felt paranoid and on edge most of the time. I felt like as if I was being watched and I hated that feeling. I recalled the words on that paper as Rose talked about how excited she was about this new book she was ordering in from the States, apparently asking Gaea for permission, which of course was granted.

_...nothing but a servant...doing whatever the big boss tells you to do..._

Nothing but a servant? How dare that person...the insult! And 'big boss'? What was that about? Was he talking about Gaea? Why, she was nothing short of good and kind, an amazing human being.

_...which is why...you'll never see me coming!_

What did the person mean by that? See them coming...? What was this mad person going to do? Was he going to come straight after me? Or Gaea? Or both? Was he going to make a direct hit for the both of us? What did we ever do to that person? We had done nothing wrong! Well, if the person was so foolish as to come and face me head on then let them, I was not afraid. And yet, that small warning...had frightened me. Deep down, it had scared me to the bone because an unseen force that had plans was going to be difficult to deal with, it had scared me because for one thing, I had no idea who I was dealing with...

_...you'll never see me coming!_

We'll never see you coming? That's what you think! My thoughts darkened as I continued to curse whoever it was that had wrote me that note, try whatever they would like, nothing was going to work. I was going to end this little game of theirs. So lost in my thoughts I had been that I barely registered the small shake of my right shoulder and the call of my name.

"Hey, Nico? Nico? Hello?" Rose's voice brought me back to the present and I looked her way. "Finally, I was calling your name for what seemed like eternity..." her brown eyes regarded me for a second, and I thought she was going to question me about what was wrong or what was going on. Instead, however, she merely shook her head and got off the chair of the table we were sitting at. "Anyway, we've gotta go, remember, we have to pick up the hounds."

"R-right." I agreed and quickly got up from my seat. We paid for our breakfast and left to walk down to the AECPC building just two blocks down.

As soon as Rose mentioned that the hounds were coming back, I felt a rush run through my body and I didn't know why. Soon, the image of the hound who was to be my partner came flooding back to my mind. I gritted my teeth not wanting to go back to thinking about  _him_ , unfortunately, my mind wouldn't listen. I went back to the day on the train in what almost seemed like years ago, where I had looked at him, for I had felt someone staring at me, and came face to face with the most intense pair of eyes I had ever seen. His eyes were the color of the sea, they were light and seemed playful yet they had an undertone of being dark and mysterious, as the ocean was prone to being since it was ever-changing. I looked straight at him as he fixed me with a, dare I say, warm, almost friendly gaze. It almost felt like he was trying to communicate with me, silently. His features flushed as I kept on staring until I could take no more and looked away.

I didn't know what compelled me to keep on staring, or why I had felt it almost impossible to rip my eyes away from him but I shrugged off the feeling. There was nothing to this, nothing at all.

Walking into the building, I saw most of my colleagues waiting inside except for Jason, Frank Zhang; a well toned, brown eyed Asian with black hair that was cropped short and Hazel Levesque; a short, hazel eyed and honey brown haired African American woman. The last three finally walked in together and all fifteen of us made our way to the elevators. Separating so that we could all fit as we made our way to the roof. Once there, there were two helicopters waiting for us and we all boarded them, where it slowly lifted off and made its way to the pick up center where the hounds would be waiting for us.

As we got closer, I couldn't help but somewhat squirm in my seat...I felt unable to keep still. It wasn't that I was excited, not at all but, somehow, the idea of seeing him again...

_excited me_

...made me want to go back to my apartment and throw darts at his picture, for some inane reason, he really got under my skin. In truth, I wanted nothing to do with him and never wanted to ever have anything to do with him ever again. Unfortunately, I had to live with him for three years...and he would be the first hound I would take in, since I was still a novice on the job. In fact, for the lot of us here, this would also be their first time taking in a hound. I briefly wondered what everyone was thinking, seeing as how quiet they were and they were usually a lively bunch. The helicopters landed, and we all got out, making our way to the elevators. We passed by another helicopter that was going back with us to the AECPC.

As the elevators descended down, I felt my heart start to hammer in my chest. This was it, waiting outside for us would be the hounds. How different would they be compared to the last time we saw them. I completely denied the part of me that asked how much  _he_ had changed within the month he spent training...why the hell was my heart pounding so damn hard in my chest? And why the hell was I curious to see how he had changed? We stepped out, with the other elevator opening up just two seconds after ours. All of us made our way outside, passing by offices and the workers in the building.

The doors opened up to reveal the small train was outside, looking as if it had just gotten there. Talk about perfect timing. The doors opened up to reveal the hounds that had been sent away. One by one, they all came out, and subconsciously I found myself searching for him...why I was even looking for him baffled me. Soon, I felt my heart rate pick up as we made eye contact. All the warmth he had given me back in the train a month ago was gone and from the look he gave me, it was as if he loathed me...not that cared, really. It was going to be a pleasure making his life a living nightmare, whenever I could. From the corner of my eye, I saw Rose make her way towards them, a piece of paper in her hands.

"Alright, the hounds who already know their partners, step forward and make your way to them." As the hounds made their way to us, the others were left looking around their surroundings, Rose continued to talk, "and now, the ones who don't their partners, stay put, when I call your name and number, you make your way to your partner." She cleared her throat and proceeded to read the names off the piece of paper in her hand. "John Mitchell, number  _29493,_ your partner is Hazel Levesque." As John made his way to Hazel, Rose read the next name. "Joanna Mellano, number  _84949,_ your partner is Frank Zhang. Mason Hastings, number  _29494,_ your partner is Dakota Johnson. Noah Montgomery, number  _58647,_ your partner is Mike Collins. And Beth Copeland, number  _39589,_ your partner is Octavian Castellan."

I looked up to see Octavian looking straight at his hound, meanwhile Rose's hound, Luke kept staring at his brother. The same was going on with Apollo and Will, and although Adam seemed to act aloof, he was also looking to Rose. Except unlike Will or Octavian, Rose gave a small, barely noticeable smile to Adam, which had him smiling just a bit. Since I was too busy studying the three different pairs of siblings, I didn't notice how close he was standing next to me, the dog. It wasn't until we were making our way back inside, that I almost bumped into him, that I noticed he was following my lead, walking close behind.

Once we entered the elevators, I was fully aware, because of how cramped it felt now that there were more people, of how close he was standing next to me. It made me feel claustrophobic and made the hairs at the back of my neck stand on end. I felt like he was watching me, studying me or something of the like, probably trying to get a feel of how I was or something. I wanted nothing more than to get out of the stuffy and cramped space, and be back at my apartment already... _our_ apartment. I felt a tinge of bitterness on my tongue as I had to say  _our_ apartment since I would now have to live with him.

Stealing a peek from the corner of my eye confirmed my suspicions of him watching me. Somehow, that made a small tingle of rush shoot through my spine, making my heart beat just a little faster. Why in the world was I acting this way? I felt completely out of control and I didn't like it. Not to mention I didn't like how he seemed to throw me off balance with every move he made. Control yourself Nico, this is nothing but routine and will be nothing but routine from now on. Especially after the three years are up.

The doors finally -  _gratefully_ \- opened up and I all but shoved away the people around me, trying to get out. Once I was outside, I inhaled a breath of fresh air and rubbed a hand down my face.

_Get it together._

Slowly, I opened up my eyes to see  _him_ looking at me, tilting his head slightly to the left, a confused expression on his stupid face. I glared at him as I shoved past him and made my way to the helicopter. I could hear him - more like feel him - trudging after me. Boarding the helicopter, I sat down near the window seat and felt him sit next to me. I was  _not_ going to be looking at him, besides, I didn't like him anyway. I know I was being childish but I'll be damned if I let this fool make me feel as if the world was spinning and never going to stop. Once everyone boarded the helicopters, one by one, they headed back to the AECPC.

I could literally feel him breathing down my neck as he craned his head to see out the window. This must be his first time on a helicopter, no wonder it made such an impression on him. Pleh, whatever, I didn't care. I just wanted to go home and ignore him for the rest of the year.

In no time, we were back at the AECPC building where we all got out, we really were an impressive bunch, there were so many of us, and walked to the elevators. Soon enough, we were back on ground level and everyone was starting to dissipate, each hound going with their Enforcers, I even saw Will flirting with his new hound. I rolled my eyes, a small smile tugging at the corners of my lips, he has no shame. I quickly looked over to my hound and grunted.

"Follow me," I said curtly, not looking to see if he was following me I began to walk, leading to the outside of the building where I had my car parked. I took out my car keys and unlocked the doors, sliding inside the vehicle and starting as he quickly climbed in. Soon, I was driving down my apartment, and in a total of five minutes I was parking in front of the familiar building.

Quickly getting out, and again not even bothering to see if he was following me still, I walked up the steps to the apartment complex, walking inside and touching the button for the elevator. I could feel him not a second later standing next to me, waiting patiently for the elevator to come. I was really not looking forward to being an enclosed space with only him, it would only be awkward.

And I was right, it felt completely awkward and uncomfortable as the elevator slowly - could it be any slower! - made its way to my floor. I swear when the small  _ding_ came on, signifying that the doors were opening, I almost sang hallelujah. Talk about not being able to breathe. I made my way to my door and took out my keys. Before opening my door though, I turned around to face my hound and took out another set of keys.

"These keys are yours," I said as I handed them to my hound, "you have a set for my car, which we will be sharing in case I ever feel lazy to drive or I'm injured or you want to drive when we go out on cases, when you need to borrow it to do some shopping and whatnot. You have set for the front door of my building and then to this door of course and you have a set to my office, since we will be working together, you have your own office which is within mine in another room. Now, you have received new sets of clothes, if you ever want to buy more you can since you now have a bank account since you'll be earning money from working as a hound. Other than that," I grated my teeth for the sentence I was about to say next, "welcome home."

He looked at me with an unreadable expression, before quietly - and speaking to me for the first time too - saying, "thank you."

Opening the door, I let him step through as I walked in behind him. He looked around the place with some sort of wonder to his features, as if he couldn't believe he now had an official home. Well, with all those years on the run, I guess he never really stayed in one place for too long and so didn't actually have a place to call - and feel like - home. He did stay with that Danny girl for a year though, some part of my brain thought back...why the hell did I even remember that small, insignificant detail? I shook my head, god, I needed to be alone for a minute to gather my thoughts.

"You said, kind of, to make myself at home right?" Came the tentative question that jarred me from my thoughts.

I looked to the green eyed bastard for a minute before answering, not really pleased with the answer I was about to give, and said, "yeah, this is your home...for at least three years that is. Then, you can decide, if the higher ups at the AECPC think of you as trustworthy, if you want to continue living here or if you'd like to move out of this place and into your own apartment."

"Oh, okay," he shook his head. The opened his mouth, "and my clothes are in...my bedroom, right?"

"Yeah," I answered, growing somewhat irritated, "your bedroom is to the left of the hallway and mine is to the right, the kitchen is over there," I said, pointing to the kitchen, "dining room over there, right next to the kitchen, obviously this is the living room and you have your own bathroom." I was about to take my leave when he asked another goddamn question.

"And what's behind that door?" I turned around to see where he was pointing at and saw him pointing to my dojo.

"That," I snapped before reeling in my irritation, "is my dojo. Don't go in there without my knowledge, do I make myself clear, hound?"

"Yes," he nodded his head.

"Good."

"Percy." Came the quiet sound that had me turning to face him, again.

"What?" I asked, although I knew what he meant by that. I could see the annoyance on his face, he didn't like the fact that I had called him  _hound_.

"I meant to say, that I have a name, and it's not  _hound_ , it's Percy. Percy Jackson. And you're Nico di Angelo."

"I'm not going to be calling you by your name, to me, you're just a hound, nothing more. So get used to it  _dog_ ," I smirked as I saw his petulance grow.

"I don't like being called that." He said, defiantly.

"Well too bad, I refuse to call you anything else."

"If it's the last thing I do," he started to show less displeasure at not getting his way, and seemed to be smirking, "I'm going to make you say my name." His eyes seemed alight with some sort of fire. Giving me a challenge, since I most certainly never going to call him by his name, he meant nothing to me, I nodded my head minutely to accept it.

_Try your hardest hound,_ I thought as we continued to stare each other down,  _I will never call you by your name._

God, those eyes...were mesmerizing...I couldn't look away even if I wanted to. I needed to leave, go to my room and leave this hound out here. I shouldn't even be staring at him but goddamn if he didn't make it hard to pull away. His eyes were intense and I felt myself almost drowning in the ocean that was his eyes...did he know what kind of affect he could have on people?

Suddenly, there was a knock on my -our- door that had us both turning to look at it. Another knock and the dog started to make his way to open it. When he did, I could make out a faint outline of a familiar face.

"Nico?" I heard the familiar voice of Rose that had me walking up to her.

I came into view and gave her a small half-smile, "hey Rose, what's up?" I ignored the dog's gaze and stubbornly looked ahead at my friend, I noticed the blond guy, Luke, the brother of Octavian with her, standing behind her. "Come in," I motioned for her to come inside and her dog followed her. Closing the door, I saw her sitting on the couch in the living room. I followed suit and my hound sat near me, god I hated that.

"We've got another case to work on, and this time it seems super bad. There's been a murder at this factory in the outskirts of Attica and that's just the third one in three weeks." Rose explained.

"Well, why haven't we known about this sooner?" I asked.

"Well because the owner thought for sure that it was the machine that the workers use in the factory that had killed the other men but now, he's not so sure. We've gotta go check it out."

"Yeah, no kidding," I shook my head. "Where's the dossier?" I asked Rose and she handed me a file that contained the information I needed to read before going into this case. I skimmed over the file, telling myself I would re-read it while on the drive there and then handed it to my hound. He took it and read over the contents of the dossier. "Okay, when should we leave?" I asked Rose.

"The sooner the better, so pack your things and in about twenty minutes, we should be good to go." She said as she started to get up and walked to my door, her hound behind her, following her. He seemed to sulking for some reason. "I'll go back to our apartment to get our stuff ready and we'll meet back here. I'll be in my car and you and in yours. See you then." With that, she left my apartment and I was left alone with the hound once more.

"So," he said slowly, "this is my first case, any advice?" He asked as he exhaled deeply.

"Yeah, stay out of my way," I turned to look at him and saw him frown at my answer. "You said to give you advice." I shrugged my shoulders.

"And here I thought you would be more mature than this Nico," he whistled under his breath and I felt my cheeks flame up at the insinuation.

"I'm being serious, when we're investigating, stay out of my and Rose's way. Think of yourself as like the muscle, for now, learn how Rose and I do things and keep it in memory. After a while, you'll get the hang of things, now, let's go dog." I said as I made my way to my room to pack my things, "get ready."

"It's Percy," I heard him mutter.

I had a feeling that this investigation was going to have some major complications...


	7. Ripples In The Making

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone, thank you all so much for the amazing comments, really, I am so thankful. Here's a new chapter and now that we're all caught up with this story on this website, since I posted this story beforehand on FF.net, the next update isn't going to be for a while. So I hope you guys can bear with me. Enjoy the chapter, happy reading!

_Ripples In The Making_

_7:30 P.M._

_R.J's Pub_

There sat a young man, in his mid-twenties, with black hair, so black it blended in with the shadows around him, pale skin, so translucent one would think he had some kind of affliction with the sun, and dark brown eyes so dark, you didn't know where the pupil was, if he even had pupils. There he sat, drinking a bit of rum with coke as a young woman draped herself around him, kissing his neck, suckling it gently. He reached up and groped her breast, a moan escaping her as she continued her ministrations, the young man watching her with disdain.

He was so bored. Bored out of his mind. The bar he was in seemed to be more contained and less lively than how it used to be. He didn't know what to do until it reached 9 PM, that was when the actual fun would begin. Until then, he was just killing time with this whore who was actually getting pretty boring pretty fast. He was also bored with the scene before. He had seen one too many and once you see one, you've seen them all. That's how these underground bars and lounges usually were nowadays. Especially with the Enforcers coming down with a firm hand to stop their illegal activities.

If a bar was raided, then you can bet half of these people were going to be captured and transported to that facility while the other half made their escape. The Enforcers would then be able to gloat and brag about how much illegal cargo they had busted. And most of the times, it was drugs, alcohol, prostitution and such, all of it going straight to the higher ups of this fine and upstanding city.

The young man laughed, to think that people actually believed that this city was paradise when in reality it was nothing but a growing parasite. A virus that needed to be flushed out. And what better way to do that then by causing a bit of trouble and with the right people by his side, he couldn't be stopped. If only those ignorant, dazed and benighted citizens and Enforcers could see just how corrupted this precious city of theirs really was, then they wouldn't be too keen on even keeping the damn thing open and the testing period would be shut down. It was built on corruption and it was always going to be corrupted.

As always, the underground bar was full of women, men, and everything in between. From dealers to buyers to whores going from one customer to the next. The young man sighed in exasperation. So. Damn. Bored.

A small ding from his phone had him looking down and as he read the contents of the text, a small smile slowly made its way on his face. Looks like he wasn't going to be bored for much longer. Time to leave this dump. Pushing the whore off of him and ignoring her angry complains at being pushed so roughly, he paid his tab and walked out of the pub.

Finally leaving the claustrophobic bar, he quickly made his way to a safe distance and when he was sure he was far away enough, he lit up a cigarette. Inhaling the nicotine and letting it fill his lungs he expelled the smoke, watching it swirl before paying attention to the place he just left. What a nice night...

"Boom." Came the low whisper of his lips... right as the bar he had just been in, exploded right before his eyes.

* * *

 

_7:30 P.M._

_Lucky's Bar_

"Fi...Fire!" A strangled cry filled the silent night air. "Fire! Someone...help!"

Eyes watering, stinging, throat parched and dry as a desert, lungs that seemed to protest the very idea of even breathing. He coughed and tried to see through the smoke for the fire alarm. To hell and back if he was going to die in this place, he'd rather get caught than die. Unfortunately for him, it seemed like his body just couldn't take the toxins anymore and before he could reach the fire alarm, he dropped dead, face first in the ground.

It seemed like luck wasn't on his side, because just a second after he dropped dead, sirens could be heard. Orders were being shouted and there was a commotion going on outside...

"How the hell did it start?"

"Like I'd know! Let's just put the damn thing out already! Before it spreads!"

"Too late for that! It's already spreading!"

"Back up! Call for back up! This fire is huge!"

"Are there any people left in there?!"

"There's five more!"

"Get them out!"

 _I made it out...I made it out...I made it out...how the fuck did I make it out alive?_ Was all Travis Stoll could think as he stood a few yards away from the panic and chaos, leaning heavily against a wall. His curly brown hair was plastered around his face, which was dirty and covered in ash. His clothes were tattered and ripped from trying to escape the fire that had somehow started. All he could think back to was hearing someone shout fire, but it had been too late when everyone was informed about it for it had grown and seemed to have blocked all exits of the bar.

Travis's mind went into panic for a single second before his training kicked in. Heading to the bathroom he was greeted by the lucky sight of seeing a towel, albeit dirty, hanging off a stall and taking it, wetting it completely before throwing it on his head. Covering his nose and mouth with his shirt to keep from inhaling the smoke and toxin of the fire, he made his way to the back door exit where the fire seemed less prominent and more tamed.

He ran across the room, often times having to fight off frantic people in their futile attempts to survive. Being knocked down several times and having panic-stricken women cling to him from time to time, the grip so strong it ripped his shirt, he pushed through until he was out the door. A heavy weight settled inside his chest at knowing he was leaving these people here to die but he had been here on a mission and he had to relay whatever news, and it was more than important, back to his boss. He couldn't lose his life, not with the vital information he had just received.

Not stopping to see if there were any police cars or firefighters coming to stop the fire, Travis ran until he was a few yards away. The adrenaline from before was gone and he was exhausted. As he continued to watch, the fire was slowly ebbing away. Getting up, he made his way to the many sewers of the city which would lead him to the hideout he was supposed to meet his partner in and together they would go back to their base. These trips to Attica and Tribeka were long and exhausting but necessary. And Travis had a feeling that they would soon start to become more frequent than before.

* * *

 

_7:30 P.M._

_Linda's Lounge_

Dionysus knew he had a role to play. He knew it well and he knew the risks of the role he was playing.

He had once been an Enforcer back in Tribeka and the best at that. He had been a ruthless leader and he had been a sharp minded young man that had quickly rose through the ranks. So then, what was he doing drinking alcohol in an underground lounge, the gross underbelly of Attica? He learned the truth, and he didn't like it. So, he went into hiding with his family, or at least what he had left. His wife had been murdered and all he had now were his two children, who were also brought into this; Pollux and Castor. How he wished that they hadn't known about this in the first place, but it was too late now, they were invested in this as a family, they were way too deep.

He continued to watch with growing irritation the slimy bastards who were groping, although it looked like it hurt, the women in see-through robes and lingerie prancing around as they tried to please the ever growing number of guests. Dionysus drank a bit more of his drink as he looked at his watch again. What was taking him so long?

The man he was supposed to meet was supposed to be here thirty minutes ago. Robert Fraiser, a man who was ridiculed for his ludicrous ideas two years ago concerning Attica and Tribeka. Downing his drink, the black haired man ordered a shot of tequila and downed it.

"Hello there handsome," came the sultry voice from one of the many women in this place.

Dionysus's face was turned to look at the woman that had approached him and he got to get a good look on her. Showing off her small but perky breasts in a see-through bra, she leaned in and gave him a peck on the lips.

"Do you want to have some fun?" She asked, hoping that he would say yes, so as to make a bit more cash before leaving for the night.

"No, thank you," Dionysus brushed her off and ordered another drink.

"Your loss, I'm a good fuck," the woman sneered before leaving him alone.

"Yeah, okay sweetheart, keep telling yourself that." Dionysus snorted in derision.

The woman left to get her things, once in the back rooms, she put on her dress and quickly got her purse leaving through the back door, wanting nothing but to go home and rest. Little would she know that she'd never reach her home, and she would never be seen again.

"This is for you," the bartender gave Dionysus a package.

"Who's it from?"

"Don't know, I was just asked to give it to you." The bartender shrugged before going back to work.

Dionysus eyed the package warily. It was poorly wrapped, with generic brown paper and the edges somewhat sticking out. There was also a lot of stamps, making it seem as though the package had been moved around a lot, Dionysus couldn't pinpoint the exact location from where it even started. There wasn't even a small indication that it was even addressed to anyone. So who could have given this to...?

_Shit! Shit! Shit! Fucking hell!_

All of the alcohol he had taken tonight had made Dionysus slow in realizing just what this package was. Such a stupid, idiotic move! He had let his guard down and now, he was going to pay the ultimate price.

_I'm fucked._

He should have seen the signs from the moment the package was handed, no from the moment of his meeting was running late. He should have known what  _this_ was! He would have just one last thought to make...before everything in his world turned black...

_Pollux...Castor...I am so sorry, my boys._

* * *

 

_As heard on the news..._

"...with the recent explosions going on in both Attica and Tribeka, the Enforcers are working hard to find the people responsible for these acts. Although, it seemed as though the intentions were in the best interests for both of the communities, the cost of such actions bring into question of just what are these vigilantes trying to do? The attacks have brought forth the truth of such underground establishments and the Enforcers along with the council of the AECPC and the TECPC are working hard to put these establishments..."

Terrible.

"...where lives were lost due to a fire and several bombs going off. It seemed choreographed for each incidents occurred at 7:30 P.M. Atlas is going to be speaking out in the place of Gaea at a meeting happening sometime next week...until then, we are left with questions..."

Just what the hell was happening. He had just gotten word of Dionysus's and Ethan's untimely deaths. Fortunately, Travis had been able to get away. He had an idea of just who was targeting his people and knew that  _he_ would stop at nothing to get rid of him. Time to regroup and execute a new plan.

* * *

 

_Minerva_

What a disaster. A complete and total disaster. When Gaea comes back, she's going to blow a fuse.

"...the bombings have brought to life what we have been trying so hard to hide beneath the surface. A terrible den of iniquity that was hidden from us. What else has been hidden from us, the people of both Attica and Tribeka? What else don't we know about? If anything it seems as though these vigilantes are trying to open our eyes and make us see what is before us..."

 _Stupid woman,_  Minerva thought bitterly as she continued to watch the moronic talk show that was being broadcast right after the news broke out of the attacks that happened. And despite all that, Minerva knew that the so called 'Dr. Demeter Rhodes' was now raising a lot of questions, and questions were bad. Minerva had to put a stop to this and quick. Picking up the phone and waiting to be connected to Atlas, she kept on watching the talk show. That Dr. Demeter certainly had a way with words and could make people see her point of view, if the audience suddenly agreeing with her was any indication.

Demeter was someone to watch out for...time to keep a close eye on her, after all, it wouldn't do to suddenly have the citizens of Attica and Tribeka suddenly panicking as if all hell broke loose.

 _"Yes?"_ Came the gruff voice on the other end of the line.

"Atlas, I'm sure I don't need to explain why I'm calling," Minerva spoke curtly.

_"There's no need for that, I've seen the news and I've tried to quiet down the panic it has created here, quite a bit if you ask me."_

"Well, I suggest we come up with a few  _possible suspects,_ and see to it that they get the justice they so deserve." Minerva suggested. "You know, for bombing those places and killing those people..."

_"If I'm thinking what I think you're thinking, which is to get a few...fall-backs, then I agree. Who are we planning to throw to the dogs?"_

"Let me skim through the files I have on my desk and I'll let you know. It'll most certainly be fools who did petty crimes and can be easily manipulated, that is until we find the ones actually responsible..."

 _"Anything to quiet down the public and panic that was created."_ Atlas barked out a loud laugh.  _"I wonder what Gaea will think of this when she comes back from her trip, she'll probably chew you out Minerva."_ Atlas teased.

"How about we keep this to ourselves, Gaea isn't due to come back anytime soon, let's just put a plug to this as quickly and as efficiently as possible, the sooner the better in the long run." Minerva responded tightly.

_"I'll keep in touch."_

* * *

 

_Will_

Okay, so sue him for flirting with his hound but could you really blame him? Will's hound was nothing short of fine and he couldn't believe he hadn't paid any attention to her whatsoever. Amber had blonde hair that was golden and long, it flowed down her back like silk. Her blue eyes, so pale and yet so amazing to look at, her pink, rosy lips that just itched to be kissed. That curvy body of hers...

Yes, he had Nico, but what they had was just a friends with benefits thing and nothing more. There were no strings attached and no feelings involved. Yes, maybe once upon a time, Will had entertained the idea of maybe getting serious with Nico but the brown eyed male had put a stop to his fantasies. Which worked out for the best, because they were better as friends anyway.

So, the blond was not committed to any relationship whatsoever which meant, he could definitely flirt his way into Amber's pants. It didn't hurt to try, right? Besides, entertaining the idea of getting into Amber's pants blocked out something he didn't want to think about. In no way had he been prepared to see his brother, for the second time since he left Will to fend for himself. Sure, Will had shrugged it off as it not being a big deal but it had been.

Seeing his brother brought back some unwanted feelings the most prominent one being anger. He was beyond angry at his brother, should he even call him that anymore? He had left Will alone with their sick mother who was stuck in a psychiatric hospital because she had been plagued by nightmares...how she had gotten so far off the rails was a question in and of itself.

Being in highschool, having to work two jobs to keep himself afloat, Will pushed through even after Apollo had run off. Seeing him again, and what he had become, nothing more than garbage, Will swallowed his anger and ignored him. The taste of bitterness soon seeped on to his tongue as he thought back to his life.

To say it had been less than perfect was an understatement. With a father who had run off and a brother that had followed in his steps, a mother who was no longer a mother and just a former shadow of herself, Will somehow made it through. He had worked hard not just becoming the top student of his class but also at his jobs, he had survived when it seemed that all odds were against him.

Suffice it to say, he had a right to hold such anger and resentment towards his brother. Will was not going to be welcoming Apollo with open arms anytime soon.

Clearing his mind, he focused back on the blonde beauty he was with and soon, turned on the charm. So maybe he did sleep around a lot, but he was young and he had a right to explore not just the world he lived in but also the beauty of the human body, the carnal desires of the flesh. Was it so bad to want to experience things for himself so that when the time came to give his own children advice, he would never let them down? Never have them go through what he had gone through? No, that didn't seem bad at all.

* * *

 

_Piper_

Just a day and she had already seemed to have taken a liking to Annabeth Chase. Looking at her, Piper could see why so many boys liked her or watched her from afar, not to mention that Annabeth seemed to give off this aura that said "she's pretty cute and I'd love to talk to her but she can also kick my ass so I better be careful". Piper, who seemed to always be able to hold a conversation with anyone, easily, was stumped and completely out of whack. She didn't know what to say to Annabeth without sounding stupid.

Sighing heavily, she turned back to the news channel that they were watching. Having moved into the apartment that same day, a story broke out just moments ago where they reported bombings going off in several different parts of the Underworld of Attica and Tribeka. And although there seemed to be a case in the making, Annabeth and Piper haven't been called to do anything about it. So, she sat quietly and watched the on-going news and investigation.

Her mind wandered off to Percy and Luke, having heard that they had left a few hours ago; actually precisely one hour after they had gotten to the city, were they given an assignment with their Enforcers. Talk about getting to do something exciting even if between Percy and Nico it seemed a bit tense and awkward. Piper turned to look at Annabeth again, studying the blonde girl with intense and entrancing gray eyes, reading her book, eating an apple.

She lowered her gaze, wanting to talk to the blonde but not knowing what to say...the brown haired girl looked around the apartment and saw that books were in abundance. Perhaps, she could ask Annabeth for a recommendation? Honestly, why was Piper even fretting over this? What was going on with her? Shaking her head, she turned back to the TV and noticed now that the news was over, having reported everything it needed to report.

Now what?

"Piper?" She heard her name being called out and she turned to look at the blonde as she bookmarked her book and closed it.

"Y...yes?" Piper asked her, feeling her cheeks growing a bit hot.

"Want to go get something to eat? Maybe do some food shopping? You could pick out things at the grocery store for you to munch on since you're going to be living here? And, it's gotten pretty late to start cooking," Annabeth turned to look at the clock that was perched on above the TV. "Yeah, way too late, so, want to go out for a bit?"

The brown haired girl felt her cheeks flaming up and not trusting herself to speak, she nodded before breathing in slowly, "yeah, sure, it sounds...awesome." She gave the blonde a smile.

"Great, you drive, I'm too tired." Annabeth tossed Piper the car keys as she grabbed her jacket, the tan girl following suit.

This was progress, albeit small but progress all the same. Piper couldn't help the smile that came on her face as she walked with Annabeth down the stairs, they were only on the second floor, they didn't need to take the elevator. Annabeth was nice and now that they were talking, she seemed easier to talk to.

Getting into the car, Annabeth and Piper decided on a what type of food they were getting settling for Chinese takeout and instead going to the grocery store first to get their stuff. As they shopped for food that they wanted around the house, they started to talk more about themselves.

Annabeth never knew her mom, but her dad was a respected university professor, she had a step-mom and two younger step-brothers who could bug her to death but overall, her family life had been normal. She was friends with Nico, Jason, Reyna; those three being the closest and overall, got along with everyone. Piper had told about how she never knew her mother either, but she had a ring that belonged to her mom with her that Piper treasured. Her dad had been killed in a car accident and from there, she went from foster home to foster home, where she had met Leo. She had had her fair share of hardships but now, she knew - more like felt - that her life was going to turn around, probably for the better.

"Sorry to hear that," Annabeth frowned slightly.

"It's fine, like I said, it's getting better..."

It was never easy to think back on her life...knowing her father had been killed and at such a young age. Sometimes, Piper felt a sort of bitterness when she thought back on her life and envy towards others who just seemed to have it easy or at least better than her. Having not known her mother and only carrying a ring in her memory, her dad was all Piper had. Yes, he had been extremely busy but whenever he could, whatever time he could spend, he spent it with his daughter.

Tristan McLean was a busy man and maybe he was not always there but he tried his damn hardest to be there, whenever he could. Piper was constantly on his mind and even if he wasn't there, he had been a good father. An amazing one at that. Having to raise his daughter on his own, back when Piper was babe and he was to act as both father and mother, while trying to become someone in life, it was a feat in and of itself. Piper was not the only child that had to grow through with that and she certainly wouldn't be the last, but she had understood that her father had made some sacrifices in life and he had done them with Piper's best interest in mind. The one thing Piper regretted to this day, was that she never got to say thank you, for everything he did.

He had done so much for her, and Piper never got to thank him, for always thinking of the best for his little girl. God, when he died, when Piper learned of his death, she didn't think she had ever cried so hard and so much. Losing him, was like losing her place on this Earth. All her 13 years of life it had always been her and her dad. What more could she have asked for?  _Except to bring my dad back..._

Moving in to a foster home, the first one, she had met Leo, who had been in foster homes since he was seven years old. Just a kid, a kid who must have been frightened and yet, there he was, telling jokes and going through life as if he had no cares in the world. She would later come to learn that that was all a façade, a mask he would put on to hide his true feelings, to hide the way he really felt about his unlucky life.

Piper and Leo, they were the same, both feeling out of place in this world and not knowing what to do to make themselves feel good about themselves or known. They got along great, the friendship had been made quickly and it had lasted even if they separated and went their own ways after turning eighteen. They still kept in touch and once in a blue moon, they hung out. Both of them were starting to get busy with their own things. With Leo, it had been his black market business taking off with Adam as his partner in crime. With Piper, she had been working at a telecommunications company during the day and at night, she had joined these group of revolutionists.

She had been so close to being accepted into the fold after proving herself in a test, that involved spreading propaganda at how controlling Attica had become, all she needed to do was meet the leader face to face. The night she had been caught was actually the day she was supposed to meet him and from there she would see how it went. Unfortunately, she had gotten caught and now, she was a hound. Maybe, just maybe, she could still make a difference while in this compromising position. Piper smiled softly as she made her way out of the grocery store, Annabeth talking about the news that was on earlier.

* * *

 

_Adam_

Sneaking out when your Enforcer was one of those serious, no-time-for-bullshit, 'I have eyes at the back of my head and I know your move don't try anything funny with me' people was next to impossible, but it had to be done, and done it was. Being a hound was no biggie except that the downside was that you and your Enforcer were stuck together like glue. You couldn't anywhere without them by your side. Which would make these secret meetings all the more harder.

Slowly sneaking and feeling his way on the roof to the destination Amber had picked, he waited with bated breath for her to come by, which he hoped was going to be soon. He didn't want to raise suspicion with Reyna, the feisty little wildcat who almost took his hand off and left him with a stump. That was a lesson learned the hard way to never touch Reyna when she didn't want to be touched. Adam chuckled lowly at the memory.

"Hey," came the whispered greeting that had him jumping up in slight fright.

"Don't do that," he grated as he heard Amber's faint giggle.

"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you."

"I didn't get scared," the brown eyed boy grumbled, "what took you so long anyway?"

"I had to sneak away from Will, besides, he was pretty insistent that I sleep with him tonight, ya know, to get used to the setting and all that," the blonde laughed.

"Wow, he's such a man-whore and here I thought I was a whore," Adam shook his head. "I look up to him now. I want to be just like him when I grow up."

"Shut up," Amber laughed harder still until she composed herself, "come on, let's let him know we're in and so far, we're safe and they suspect nothing." Amber went back to business. "I'll call in the owl."

"Did you hear about the bombings going off in Tribeka and Attica?" Adam asked her as soon as Amber was done whistling.

"Yeah, saw it on the news earlier, they were at the places where  _our_ group would be talking to some very important people. I wonder how he's handling it and I wonder if anyone made it out alive..." the blonde chewed on her bottom lip.

"Let's hope that everyone's okay..." Adam grunted as he finished writing out on a small piece of paper the coded message that was to be carried out by the owl and into the hands of one of their comrades. To anyone who would have gotten it, they would have just seen squares, circles, triangles, meaningless shapes but to them, they knew what that meant. Slipping the message into the claws of the owl, Amber gave it the command to fly off. The pair watched in awe as the majestic, snow white owl took flight and flew off into the distance, becoming nothing more than a speck in the night sky.

"And so it's begun..." Amber spoke quietly as she gazed up the stars, well the ones that were closer to the atmosphere and visible enough through all of the bright lights.

"Yep, and now we wait for further instructions...until then, let's make sure not to make ourselves seem suspicious. I'll relay the message to Clarisse and Silena."

"What about Piper?"

"What about her?" Adam grunted.

"She was close to being accepted into the fold and unfortunately because she got caught, she was never put through any training on how to not spill the beans on our organization...what if she talks? Shouldn't we be cautious and also let her in?" Amber looked to Adam.

"Shit, and I just sent a message to him...guess I'll have to send another one when the owl comes back but until then, we keep an eye on her and we won't do anything with Piper until we receive instructions. Besides, it's not like we told her anything of importance." Adam shrugged.

They fell into comfortable silence and continued to watch the night sky. The ambiance was relaxed despite the hanging threat of being discovered by their Enforcers and being caught out...if that happened, Adam could always say he came to see Amber and they engaged in a heated embrace that lead to...other things.

"Okay...have you talked to her yet?" Came the quiet question that jarred him from his musings.

"I haven't gotten the chance, we haven't seen each other in two years...my sister's changed. She looks...so much stronger...like she can beat my ass," Adam whistled. "Plus, she went out on a case today in less than an hour so I never got the chance..."

"She looks good," Amber commented.

"Yeah..."

"Well, be careful around her Adam, we must keep our focus on our goal..."

"I know that..."

"It seems like...the tides are beginning to turn, Adam. These rumblings are becoming a little louder and soon enough, we'll face what we've been waiting for all these years...this is just the beginning." Amber said cryptically and Adam eyed her for a second before shaking his head.

"Time to go before they notice our absence, I'll tell you if anything comes back, keep on the lookout." Adam said as he slipped back into the shadows, Amber and him separating ways until they snuck back into their apartments and were safely inside.

So many things were going off at once...Amber was right, this was just the beginning of things.


	8. Bullies

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And I am back with a new chapter for this story! Sorry it took so long, but hope you guys like the long chapter up ahead, well, onward and upward, happy reading!  
> Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson and The Olympians

_Bullies_

Okay, what a jackass. As if it wasn't bad enough I had liked the guy in  _that_ sort of way, I come to find that he is an asshole with his head so far up his ass, he may as well say 'hi' to his smaller intestines. Bottom line, I hated his guts.

And what was up with him calling me 'hound' or 'dog' anyway? Seriously, it wasn't that hard to say 'Percy'. He refused to call me anything else other than hound or dog, what a...jackass. My lips thinned as I packed whatever essentials I would need for the case although 'Nico' didn't exactly specify.

"Hound, what's taking you so long?" Came the exasperated question that had me gritting my teeth and biting my tongue so as not to say anything rash. Now, he was just doing that on purpose.

"I'm almost done," I snapped and then proceeded to wince since I hadn't meant to show how much he annoyed me.

"You better be," came the reply, I could literally  _hear_ that stupid smirk of his.

Five minutes later, we were in his car, ready to leave and only waiting for Rose, the girl who looked so much like Marisol to come back and lead the way to where our case was. Being in such an enclosed space with him had me feeling a bit flustered and I really wanted to go back to the apartment and rest, after all, I did come back from a long trip. Being in the car felt stuffy and I was starting to get bored, not to mention Nico was busy reading the dossier with the information on the place. I hadn't exactly read the info, more like skimmed it so I was, somewhat, at a loss, but I bet if I asked him to explain it to me, he'd laugh in my face.

I looked from the corner of my eye and saw a bit of the info, not to mention, I remembered some of what I had read. Apparently, some machines in this factory on the outskirts of Attica had killed three employees. The owner and the guards didn't know how this happened, much less why. Not to mention, the workers were getting a bit panicked. So far, there didn't seem to be any connection between the victims so we were going in blind. The information was scarce and there wasn't anything else besides the information on the dead victims and the machines responsible for their deaths.

"Can I ask why do you keep glancing my way?" Nico asked when I had looked over at him again.

My cheeks flamed as the notion of getting caught sunk in, I didn't mean to really look at him, I was just looking at the dossier. "I...uh, only skimmed over the info, I read about the worries of the owner and the panic setting in, but not much else..." I admitted without looking at him.

"Hn." Nico grunted and as I turned to glare out the window, I heard him speak once more. "Well, the factory we're going to distributes food to the city, to be precise, they distribute meat. The machines that killed the victims are only on during work hours, not to mention, that they can only be on/controlled by the managers of the factory. Employees of lower rank don't have access to the machines, not to mention the vice president of the factory has a key to the control unit of where you can control them. Right now, we're looking into the managers and the vice president."

To say I was surprised he had indulged me, let alone even speak to me for that long, sharing information about the case, left me a bit dumbfounded. I had really thought that Nico would instead let me read the dossier when we reached the place, let me seem incompetent and blow chunks on the first case I ever worked. But this was pleasantly surprising.

"...the first victim," I shook my head and realized I had tuned Nico out, he was still explaining the situation to me, "was a 32 year-old man, his name was Kevin Brown, an African American man who worked on the assembly line...apparently he was killed by the meat grinder machine, and I mean, they have like this huge meat grinder machine that grinds the meat in large quantities...he was..." Nico made a face, "grinded..."

Oh, ew. Well that's disgusting.

"Here, look," Nico motioned for me to look at a picture.

"Oh, god, fucking gross man." I turned away from the picture.

It was of Kevin Brown, or what was left of him seeing as how his insides were now out and put through the grinder...literally.

"Says here, the machines of this place are intelligent enough that when they sense a human's presence too close to the machine, the machines stop working immediately, that's why there's so few accidents...barely actually..."

"But...this one didn't stop..." I said, I couldn't get the image of Mr. Kevin Brown out of my head. Shuddering, I turned back to Nico.

"Yeah and that's what we're going to figure out." Nico had a pensive look on his face before he looked back to the file. "The other victim is Martin Howard, a 35 year old, white male, killed by being flattened by another machine...also on the assembly line..."

"Please tell me there is not a picture, I don't think my stomach can handle it." I asked the young man beside me, not wanting to see another picture of a human being with their insides out.

"Nope, and the last victim, was a 29 year-old, he was also white and he was run over by, you know, those cars that are driven around the warehouse, or factory, carrying large piles of things? Those things...you know what I'm talking about, right? I forgot what they're called..." Nico asked me without looking at me, flipping through some papers.

"Yeah," I answered, rolling my eyes, how clueless was he? But in all fairness, I didn't know what they were called either.

"Yeah, well one of those, run over and then dragged all over the factory, and he left quite the skid marks..."

I scoffed, he really didn't have a filter did he?

"And when did all of this happen?" I asked him as he close the dossier.

"The accidents all took place one week after the other, all at night."

"Wait, at night? What, do they all live within the factory or something?"

"Yes," Nico replied, "hound, it's in the outskirts of the city, far, far away, the workers in the factory all live there...even the president and vice president running the company."

"That's weird," ignoring the way he had said hound and instead focusing on the weird way of life for the factory workers.

Finally, we heard a car beep beside us and we both turned to look out the window, where we saw Rose waving to us. I started the car and saw her drive down, with me following behind her.

While driving, I took that time and studied Nico more closely. Yeah, he was definitely good looking but he was also a dick, at least to me, which I had no idea why? Yeah, I was accused of doing something completely horrendous but that still didn't give someone the right to act like such a huge dick. Jeez, why was I even attracted to him in the first place? Not that I was now, I was just admitting that when I first looked at him, I had found him attractive. Other than that, I definitely didn't find him that good looking now, especially with the way he was acting with me.

Why was he so damn mean? Seriously, what exactly had I done that made him act that way towards me? Other than the fact that he most likely read my file and saw that I had supposedly "killed" my family, I don't have any idea what I had done to him to warrant such hostile behavior from him towards me. Shaking my head free from my wandering thoughts, I focused back on driving, didn't want any accidents to happen now, did I?

Finally, after what felt like two hours, we were now at the factory, the big gates opened up to let us inside. Driving in, we were greeted by security who asked us to flash our IDs before letting us in. It made me wonder, with all of this security running around in this place, how exactly did three men wound up dead? Going further inside, we drove until we came at a stop in front of the front doors of the factory. Outside, there was the VP of the company, waiting for us with two guards.

The factory was a dull gray, square-ish building, huge of course, but still, it made it seem as though life here wasn't all that great. Kind of made the Attica Annex Facility seem more homey compared to this.

"Welcome Enforcers, thank you so much for coming, how was your trip?" VP Jacobson asked us as we came to a stop in front of him and the guards.

"Good, thank you," Nico replied, smiling a bit. "This is my partner..." He looked at me and nodded his head, as if signaling me to speak.

"...uh, Percy Jackson, nice to meet you," I said, gathering my wits, I should've known he wouldn't introduce me. Dick.

"This is my partner Luke Castellan, they will be helping us sort out this little...problem we have on our hands," Rose spoke up after me.

"Yes, thank you again Enforcer Nico and Rose, if you will follow us inside please, we will lead you to President Masters's office." VP Jacobson said and then turned around and then went inside, the doors of the factory opening up as soon as he stepped within a foot away from them.

We followed him all throughout the factory, looking in at the different parts that were shown to us as we passed them by. There was a locker room type behind one door where it looked to be in use at the moment. Then there were a few other doors that had no small window for us to see in, they were wooden and completely closed off.

"What's behind these doors?" I asked the VP, who we were still following, as he walked on.

"Those doors and the ones you've passed by and will pass by in the second and third floors hold the rooms to our workers." He answered.

It was silent after my question and we continued to walk until we reached another door that was slightly bigger than the others. VP Jacobson knocked once on the door before opening it and letting the four of us in, before coming in himself with his guards in tow.

"Mr. Hamilton, the Enforcers are here," Jacobson announced as he stood before the president of the company who was looking out of his window, his back to us.

Turning around, I saw a man in his early 40s perhaps, with sandy blond hair and gray eyes. He had laughs lines, indicating he was a man who didn't mind having a good, hearty chuckle out of things, he even had crow lines near the edges of his eyes. I looked around his office, which had dark navy blue carpet, the walls were a warm brown, with a touch of dark gray mixed in the paint. There was a couch off to the side of the office while the desk was in the center, before the big windows giving light to the room.

The desk was black with two comfy chairs seated in front of it. Lamps were hung up at different points along the wall and they were lowly lit. The office also had a bit of decorations in it. There were a few paintings hung up, and there was a shelf to one side that had books, large quantities of books. On the other side of this four-walled room, there was a small, wooden table that had beverages on it. Glasses were there if anyone wanted to grab a drink, a drink of what, I didn't know.

"Thank you so much for coming Enforcers," Mr. Hamilton had spoken, bringing my attention back to him.

"It's not a problem Mr. Hamilton," Nico speaks up, shaking hands with the president of the company.

We all crowd around his desk and soon, Rose and Nico start to question both the president and vice president of the company. What did they have in mind about what was causing the machines to act out, how and if these accidents are connected, why was it only happening at night. It happened at night because that was the only time in which the controls to the machine were under lock and key and not exactly monitored, until after these incidents. See, during work hours, the regualr employees know they aren't allowed in the control center and there's always someone watching over the room. Nighttime would be the best way to do it and get away with the crime.

Soon enough, when both Nico and Rose were satisfied with their questioning of the vice president and president of the company, both of them having only the knowledge that was provided in the dossier, Nico asked if we could talk to the employees that worked here and their close friends of the victims.

"Yes Enforcer, of course, I'll hand you all of our files on every employee and point out the close friends of the victims." The president started to download on a flash drive all of the information they had on every employee in the factory.

"We'll also need to see the security tapes as well," Rose informed the VP.

"Oh, of course, although...if I may say," vice president Jacobson timidly spoke, as if afraid of what he was about to say next, "after the first murder, we reviewed the tapes and well...they seem to have been tampered with. Same thing when we reviewed the tapes for the second and third murders..."

"You're joking?" Rose scoffed lightly.

"No, have a look for yourselves, we were completely baffled by it too," Jacobson fiercely shook his head, as if wanting to make us comprehend, to understand that he was telling the truth.

"Okay, we'll go over the tapes ourselves, see what we make of it..." Rose scratched the bridge of her nose.

"Here you are Enforcers," Mr. Hamilton handed Nico the flash drive.

"Thank you," Nico said, before motioning for us three to follow him. Once outside of the office, Nico turned to us, "okay, I suggest we split up in to two, each getting a set of employees to interrogate, first we interrogate the close friends of the victims and then we question the rest. We are also going to question the security guards, see if they know or found anything suspicious. Sound good?" Nico looked at us for approval.

"Sounds good Chief," Rose tipped her head to him and smirked as Nico rolled his eyes.

"Good, let's see what we can get out of these guys, hound," Nico looked to me and I saw Rose's and Luke's eyes widen slightly, "you're going to be paired up with Rose-"

"Wh-what?" Rose spoke up, obviously confused as to why Nico was even doing this in the first place.

"Rose, I need him to go with you, you're going to be reviewing the tapes right?" Nico looked over at his fellow companion.

"Well, yeah..."

"Okay, well, you're going to get another opportunity to teach your partner how to look through evidence on tapes, decipher anything or even hack into something, by your scores Rose, you're somewhat a tech buff, I need you to teach the dog how to do all of that, that's going to come in handy...not to mention, it gets him away from me."

"Nico," Rose shook her head at him, "first off, he has a name and it's Percy, secondly, he's your partner, you're going to need to deal with whatever issue you have with him a-"

"Yeah, I'd like to find out why Mr. High and Mighty feels like he's better than me," I snorted, breaking Rose off.

"Oh trust me  _dog,_ I am better than you," Nico narrowed his eyes at me.

"Really? 'Cause right now, you're not acting like you're better, you're acting pretty petty," I glared at the man in front of me.

"Oh really, we-"

"Okay enough children," Rose came between us, looking at the both of us, disapproval clearly evident in her eyes. "You two wanna act like kids, you'll be separated like kids when they're misbehaving."

"Rose-" Nico started, only to be interrupted by the brown eyed girl.

"Like I said, I'll take Percy for the day, teach him how to handle a bit of tech, but you two gotta fix your damn problems. You're living together now, so whatever you two have going on, fix it." Rose turned to me then, "come on Percy." I followed her to another part of the factory, only looking back once to see Nico talking to Luke with no problem.

* * *

 

A few minutes later, Rose and I reach a room that's empty and only has a table with three chairs. The room is gray and claustrophobic and makes me feel trapped and uncomfortable. The walls are bare and the bright fluorescent light that's shining above us makes me feel a bit dizzy. I close my eyes for one second, all I need is one second because suddenly this whole room is bringing back memories of what happened after I was captured.

How I was stuck in a similar room for what felt like hours on end, until someone came, two people, just like Rose and I and they started to question me. And because I am a criminal, they think they have the right to harass me. They interrogated me, scuffed me up pretty good, not enough so that others could tell what happened to me, but enough to make me feel pain, they taunted me, saying how I was going to rot in prison because of the crime I committed, the  _sin_ I committed which was harming my family. Killing them as if they were nothing of importance when those idiots didn't even know the fucking truth!

"Percy?" I hear Rose's voice but it sounds so far away and I swear to God that it sounds just like Marisol's voice and I would vouch my life that Rose is Marisol except Rose said there was no Marisol, there never was because  _Marisol_ didn't exist and yet for some reason, it's like something is telling me that this...this is all wrong. Something...something feels wrong. Not just the case but also...ever si-

"Percy? Do you need to sit down? Do you want some water?" Rose asks me again, pulling me away from my thoughts.

"I'm uh...fine, it's just this...this whole thing...brings back memories and not the good kind either," I look around the room again before turning my gaze to her. Looking at the girl in front of me, I try for a smile to seem brave but I can tell it came out looking more like a grimace because her lips are soon pressed tight together into a thin line and she shakes her head once before walking to the door.

"I'm going to get you a cup of water, sit tight," and before I can protest, she's already gone. And really, what good would it have done to protest to Rose, when she seemed like the type to take 'no' for an answer.

Thirty minutes later, and I find myself questioning another close friend with the Vics, telling both Rose and I the same story.

Nothing was wrong with the victim, he never acted out of sorts following the days before the accident, nothing out of the ordinary. Everything was the same, everything was normal, things were fine, he was himself. He never acted weird or anything. Can't believe he's gone. That's what they finish with. You can always count on that being the last line. Can't. Believe. He's Gone.

And I guess I'm sort of numb when another person feels loss because I've gone through that except it was more personal, and somehow, more important because when they say that, I feel the strong urge to punch them in the face.

"Come on," Rose says after the last person being interrogated leaves the room, she's stretching her body and I can't help but stare at her a bit. It's been a long time since I've been with a woman and Rose is pretty, plus, she treats me like a fucking human being.

I start to look closely at Rose. She's got one hell of a body I notice, curvy, with a very endowed bosom, not to mention her butt is not bad either. Oh yeah, it  _definitely_ has been a long time since I last had sex and pleasured a woman. Now, I'm going to be very honest here and I don't care what crap you gotta say, but I've had my fair share of experiencing sex in all its fine glory...as fine and glorious as it can be when you're busy getting  _busy_ in the underbelly of Attica and not get caught.

I lost my virginity to a woman, a very special woman at the age of 16 going on 17, back when my family was still alive and an old buddy of mine from high school introduced me to the underworld of Attica. Where you could have sex with a prostitute and drink liquor, actual liquor that could burn your throat when it was too strong, liquor, hard liquor that could make your head spin. It would make you feel warm, as if a fire were starting in your belly and your head was spinning and you found you couldn't walk if you didn't watch yourself and drank too much but it didn't matter to me because I was young and I  _needed_ to drink because I was about to lose my virginity to a fucking prostitute and I was scared because I had no fucking idea how to satisfy a woman.

This special woman who took me in my virgin state and transformed me into an animal that could please a woman with just a caress of my hand in the right place or the stroke of my tongue... Her name was Karen, lovely, beautiful, experienced Karen. She took me, a boy, in and out came a man. Beautiful, dark-haired Karen was patient, teaching me all night long how exactly to please a woman, where to touch her to drive her crazy, where to lick to make her scream. The first time with her...oh god, I can still remember it.

"First time?" She had whispered in my ear, and I couldn't face her, couldn't lift my eyes to look her in the eye, couldn't answer because I frozen solid where I stood. I felt so inexperienced and so out of place, I felt awkward and I felt that I would mess up at any given moment. Even with the simple tasks of taking off my shirt and my pants.

"It's okay baby," she whispered in my ear as she ran her hand down my spine, and boy if it didn't make me rock hard at just her gentle touch and her seductive voice, "I'll teach you all you need to know on how to please a woman."

Kissing me on my lips, she stood before me, slowly undressing. And with the silent whisper of her dress falling to the floor, I had my first introduction with the female body, and had allowed myself to be taken by a whole new world of the indescribable pleasure known only as sex.

Morning had come too damn soon.

"So, how's it feel to be a man, my friend?" My buddy slung his arm around me, smirking as he glanced at me side-ways and waited for me to answer.

How did it feel? How did it feel? It felt like I was on top of the world, like I could do no wrong, at least when it came to the pleasures of a woman. God damn did I feel good. More than good, just remembering how many times I had that woman call out my name, scream it even, had me smiling smugly, rubbing my nose. That blessed woman had been a good, patient teacher but the student had eventually surpassed with far greater expectations than she could have hoped and god damn if I still didn't feel her warmth around me...

She had given me instructions to ask for her if I was ever coming back, and boy, was I coming back. Karen had looked absolutely delicious with the sheets pooling around her waist as she gave me her card, and I couldn't help but stare at her hips and breasts which still had my imprints, confirming to me that that night of passion had been real. Not anything short of it.

I was definitely coming back...

...And I kept to my promise, at least for a while...that is until the novelty that I wasn't the only man, never was going to be the only man in her life wore off. Nothing would ever come out of it and so, I stopped going to her. It had also been during this time that I met Ben, and no, he was not a prostitute.

I had gotten a job at a bookstore, as a sort of hobby to distract me not just from boredom but also from teenage hormones. See, in the bookstore I worked in, I would see a lot of different kids come in, some from my school, others from different schools. And because so many kids came in, I never had the pleasure of meeting Ben until he came up close and personal. By that, I mean he came up to my register one boring Wednesday afternoon that was being dulled because it was raining and the bookstore was close to being empty.

He came up to me, with his brown hair a bit ruffled, big brown eyes and a wide smile, and he brought up with him a few notebooks and few other books. And I honestly couldn't remember what I had said because I couldn't stop thinking he was the cutest thing I had ever seen. He payed for his things, left and I had thought that would be that...

Except he came back the next day and browsed around the entire store for almost an hour before buying only a pencil, that was when I knew or more like felt I had a slight chance. So I talked to him as he was paying, and wouldn't you believe it! I made him laugh with my stupid jokes, and he said he liked talking to me, gave me his number and asked to go to the movies with me.

That night I had gushed to my mom and dad about it, they were always very accepting and dad took me aside and told me I had to treat this boy right if I really liked him, I had to treat him right and I couldn't ever make him feel like he was worthless. And I took that advice to heart, I was determined to make sure Ben never felt unwanted by me.

Burning with determination I did everything in my power to be the perfect boyfriend to Ben. Always paying for our dates, whenever I could, surprising him with small gifts here and there, surprising him while at school, because surprisingly enough, we went to the same school. Our first kiss had been the night I had dropped him off at home from the movies, I got to first base when he came over my house to study, I got to second base one night after taking him to the school dance, third base was in the back of my parents car. And finally, we went all the way after 7 months of dating in my room one night that my parents and my little brother had gone out, and it was so worth the wait.

Pleasuring a guy is much different than pleasuring a woman, all the same, I quickly learned what made Ben feel more than good. Not once did it ever occur to me how strange it was to be into a girl and then suddenly be into a boy, because I never really thought of it that way. And I found myself not exactly caring because I had an amazing guy by my side. I honestly thought we were going to be together forever...guess I should have seen the signs when he started to pull away.

Dammit how fucking naïve was I to think it would last when he started to pull away and spend less time with me? He would start to hang around me less, and whenever I would call him to talk, he would sound so disinterested in me, so distracted, before he made up some excuse that he had something to do. Then I see him hanging with this new guy and all I can think is how fucking idiotic I am because I should have seen the signs. We broke up, plain and simple and painful.

Thank the Lord it was only puppy love. At least that's what I told myself at the time...

I look Rose over and damn if I'm not feeling a bit tight in my pants. Too bad my Enforcer is attached to me like glue unless he says otherwise, because if Nico's going to be next to me every second of every hour; there's no way in hell I would ever be able to have sex with a prostitute in the underbelly of Attica. No fucking way.

"Let's go check on those security tapes," Rose is walking to the door and turns back to look at me, before I too, stand up and follow her out.

Excuse my uncouth manners but dammit does sex sound good right about now.

* * *

 

"Okay, just sent a message to Nico saying we're reviewing the tapes right now and told him of what we found when interrogating the employees. He sent me a message earlier saying we're still got half of the employees to go through. In the meantime, you are going to learn a bit of techno over here," Rose glanced my way as she spoke, "hope you're ready."

"Bring it on."

Boy did she bring it, all of this tech talk had my mind whirling with numbers and shortcut keys. First we went over the tapes and just like the VP had said, they were tampered with. Then Rose tried to make out at least a few faces, since they were either blurred out or something was in the way, making it impossible for us to make out who the hell committed these murders. She tried to fix the tapes by hitting a few keys, which to me seemed at random until she explained what hitting a few keys at the same time could do. But no such luck, she hadn't been able to fix the tapes and now, we were stuck down here in the surveillance room waiting on Nico and Luke, who were still interrogating a few of the employees, to get down here and figure out what to.

Soon enough, Luke and the little devil came into the room and now it was Nico who busy hitting random keys as he heard Rose tell him it was futile but man was the little shit ever stubborn. Finally, after a few minutes, he seemed to have gotten the hint because he gave up and sat back down with a loud sigh.

"We could...send the tapes to Calypso?" Rose finally spoke up, breaking the silence that had settled.

Nico looked over to her and something flitted across his face for a brief second, before it was gone, "yeah, that's a great idea. We send the tapes over to Calypso, where she has more advanced equipment in her hands and she could definitely fix the tapes. Let's send them over right now."

He got up and went over to the computer where he pressed his wristband and out popped a list of contacts before he reached Calypso and it started to dial. We waited for all of five seconds before this girl with light, golden brown hair, light hazel-brown eyes, rosy skin, full lips and a slim figure came on the screen. Excuse my uncouth manners but man, was she a babe.

"Nico?" She spoke first, "Rose, what's going on?"

"We need help, we're investigating those triple murders and when we got to see the tapes, we found they were tampered with." Nico explained the situation quickly.

"Are you planning to send them over?"

"Yeah, I'm sending them over right now as we speak." Nico confirmed.

"Okay, I'll see what I can do once I get them and I'll let you guys know at once if I have them fixed, sound good?" She looked to Nico and then to Rose.

"Sounds good, thanks Calypso," Nico nodded his head before he hung up.

"Now all we do is wait," Rose puffed out her cheeks. Just then, a loud bell had gone off throughout the whole factory for a good three minutes before completely shutting off.

"Not exactly," Nico started, "let's get lunch."

Walking down to the cafeteria, which was huge by the way, so frickin' huge you would've thought it was close to looking like a football stadium and maybe I'm exaggerating but goddamn it was big, then again, it's gotta be huge to be able to fit so many of the workers there in one place while eating lunch, we found the President and VP eating lunch with some other people who looked like they weren't regular employees but more like secretaries, helpers of the president and vice president, if their fancy and different clothing was anything to go by.

Making the line to get food, seeing what type of food they eat, which isn't so bad but man, do I miss Jeremy's cooking, well not his cooking per se but his staff's. I look around and see a lot of the workers in groups, reminding me, sort of like high school. Everyone just knew where to sit...

...Or so I thought, because soon enough, we hear scuffling and then there's the loud clatter of a tray hitting the floor before the cafeteria is filled with laughter, mocking, taunting laughter and all I can see is one man, looking down at his food in pity.

"Bryant, it's no fair! Why'd you have to throw my tray like that?!" The man whines before he's being shoved against the wall by the so-called 'Bryant'.

"Aww, is little Michael whining?" He jabbed at the poor guy, "is the poor, little baby upset his food is all on the floor?" The rest of the cafeteria jeered as Bryant kept going with his insults, which made the poor bastard he had against the wall look down as if ashamed and had my blood boiling. He kept at it too, going as far as hitting Michael and the guy was close to breaking out the water works.

Before I knew it, I was making my way across where the scene was unfolding, hearing faintly the calls from Rose and Luke and Nico, calling me 'hound' (of fucking course) telling me to come back, asking me what I was planning to do. I reached the two men, grabbed Bryant by the wrist and when he turned around, slammed him against the wall, where he effectively let go of Michael.

I came in real close, "having fun picking on the smaller guy who won't stand up for himself, even when he didn't even cause any problems in the first place?" I sneered, "why don't you pick on someone your own size, oh wait, you'd be too chicken shit to actually do something like that, right? That's why you pick on the smaller people, right? Right?!" I yell, not even noticing that the cafeteria went silent, listening to my outburst. "You wanna know what you are Bryant?" I chaffed, wanting him to do something to me, do anything so that I could punch his face in, "you're a damn bully. Nothing but a pathetic, pitiful, fucking child-like bully with nothing better to do other than pick and tease and harass someone who wasn't even doing anything to you in the first place!"

Reigning in my anger I let him go, "get out of my sight, and I better not watch you harass that poor man, you leave him alone, ya hear?" Bryant is trembling as he's moving to his table and with a quick nod, he ducks his head as if embarrassed...good. I look over at Michael, and see him give me a small but grateful smile before coming up to me.

"Thank you so much Enforcer..."

"Percy," I supply.

"Percy...thank you, very much.

"Not a problem, the guy was a douche anyway, someone needed to teach him a lesson." I rubbed the back of my neck, that grateful smile suddenly made me feel all bashful for some reason. The guy was looking at me as if I had just saved his life or something...

"W-would you and your friends like to come sit down at my table?" He offers me and I don't really have the heart to turn him down, so I answer for all of us and say yeah. Needless to say, Nico is pissed while Rose and Luke look uncomfortable, not to mention he didn't say anything about there being two other people joining us or rather...we joined them, I guess.

We find out one is named Jordan and the other is Richard and just like Michael, they are outcasts. Asking what the whole deal is with this place, the trio fill us, or rather me in about how they are always the target to bullying around the factory. They don't know how or why it happens but it does and it seems like neither the president of the company, nor the vice president of the company seem too eager to stop it. They spend the whole lunch time talking about how unfair it all is and how there's nothing they can do about it. The way they spoke, it made them seem very angry, which I would get but it was bordering on scary-angry...if that makes sense at all.

Soon enough, an idea pops into my head, and then I start to question them about the murders that have happened around the factory. For a split-second, Michael's eyes widen slightly before he composes himself, and the three start to talk to me about it. Then I start to question them, like I had been doing for three hours straight, and the answers seem normal and ordinary and completely generic to how everyone else in the factory answered except...they don't seem genuine enough to pass off as realistic...

Right then, the bell rings, signaling the end of lunch and the trio get up, saying their goodbyes, Michael thanking me once more before they're gone. Then I turn to the other three occupants of the table, and say, "that...seemed pretty suspicious...wouldn't you all agree?"

"Very..." Rose answers and then gets up, tugging Luke's shirt, signaling him to follow her, "me and Luke are going to check on Calypso and see if she managed to fix those tapes."

They left, leaving me alone with Nico di Angelo... I tap my fingers softly on the table as the tension between us grows.

"We should look around the factory some more, look at where the murders took place maybe?" Nico suggested, looking towards the door of the cafeteria.

"Sure."

Together, we stood up and went out through the double doors, him in front and me trailing behind. He was tall, but still shorter than me, I was around 6'3, and Nico looked to be about 5'8, maybe 5'9? His hair was shaggy and tousled, his skin looked completely blemish-free, his body was lithe and looked well-toned and damn if he weren't such a jerk, I'd definitely make a move on him because, and I'll deny ever saying this, Nico was damn pretty.

We get to the place where the murders occurred, which was the assembly line and start to look around. The machines responsible were closed off, with yellow tape preventing anyone from coming near them. They had been scrubbed clean but if you looked hard enough, you could still see a few blood streaks here and there, not very surprising since it had been a messy death...

I keep looking around, hoping to see if I'll find a clue or something, for some strange reason, I had the strong urge to show Nico I could be useful when on a case, like as if I wanted to impress him...and so I looked very closely hoping to find anything, anything at all connecting someone to the murders. No such luck, it seems whoever did this had been very thorough.

"Hey," Nico called out to me, "I just got a message from Rose, Calypso sent the tapes back and she was able to fix them, as much as she could, Rose wants us back to the security room so we can all see the tapes, let's go back."

The both us started to walk fast to the security room, anxious to solve this case and be done with it. It took us five minutes to get to the security room, where we found Rose and Luke sitting down, both pressing a few buttons on the computer they were on. As soon as Rose saw us, she hit a few keys and soon enough, the big screen in front of us started to play a tape. The tape was dated to the first murder, and soon, we saw the person responsible. It was Jordan. He was walking down with the first victim, both talking until Jordan pushed Kevin Brown, the first victim, away and then he took out this remote control thing...or at least it looked like a remote control. The machines around them came to life, and there was the specific one that had killed Mr. Brown. Soon, the screen went black and Rose shut it off.

"That settles it," Nico spoke up, "let's arrest Jordan, we have enough evidence linking him to the murders."

"Not all three though," I look over at Nico, who glares at me, "let's look at the rest of the tapes and see if anyone else was involved." I continue on, ignoring him.

"Sounds good," Rose nodded her head at my idea, if it looks like it's Jordan, then we'll make the arrest." She said, hoping Nico would comply.

"Fine," the stubborn brown eyed male grumbled.

Rose played the other tapes, fast-fowarding them until we came up to the date of where the second murder took place, and this time we saw that it was Richard who had killed the second victim. Once again fast-forwarding the latest murder had been done by Michael...

"It was like...they had gotten their revenge..." Rose was the first to speak in the quiet room. "These three guys were bullied and...they got their revenge on the people responsible..."

"You guys," Luke spoke up, "what do you think will happen tonight? Bryant had bullied Michael."

"They must be planning to do something..." Nico muttered, we need to arrest those three, let's split up. Rose and Luke you'll get Richard, I'll get Jordan and Percy you get Michael."

"Really?" I ask, somewhat glaring at Nico, "you want to split up now? What? Can't stand to work with me at all?"

"It's not that you idiot, this means we get to cover more ground, I want Luke to go with Rose so nothing happens to her," Nico snapped.

"I can take care of myself Nico."

"I know you can but these guys know the factory better than us, they have the upper hand and I don't want anything to happen to you. Hound, you be careful, watch your steps and once you catch them, make sure to question them about how exactly did they even commit these murders without getting caught. Go!"

All four of us split up, running towards the rooms of Richard, Jordan and Michael, all three of them were roomed separately. Michael was on the first floor so I made my way quickly down the stairs, hoping to be able to catch Michael and see if I could get anything out of him. Stumbling out into the corridor I see a lone figure at the end of the hall and I run towards him. He looks back and sees me coming after, soon sprinting off trying to get away from me. Catching up to him, I tackle him to the ground and see it's Michael.

"Michael!"

"I'm sorry!" He sobs out. "I'm sorry I just...got so tired of getting picked every single day! Every day it was the same thing and they never did anything about it! Not once did they try to stop the bullying, not  _once_!" He yells out.

"And committing murder would help?"

"No! But...Jordan and Richard, they...they met with someone...someone who said they could help..."

"Who?" I ask, hoping to get any information.

"Someone, I never met the person but the person said they could help..."

"Man or woman?"

"I never met the person...never heard the person speak...Jordan and Richard wouldn't tell me either...I-I don't know who it was."

"Michael, this is crucial, how can you have never met the person who  _helped_ you commit a murder?!"

"I don't-don't know! I don't know but the person gave us these remote controls...they control the machines in the fac-"

"How did that person get access to the machines?"

"I don't know, the person was secretive..."

Just when I was about to ask Michael a question, I heard a faint ticking before he started to spurt out blood. His head went to the side where he coughed up more blood but some of it had landed on my shirt and the side of my face, which I scrubbed at. His body shuddered as each cough had him curling within himself.

"Michael?" I ask, not noticing I was trembling. "Michael, what's wrong?"

But Michael doesn't answer me, instead he just keeps on coughing, blood clogging his throat. All I can do is watch, feeling completely helpless because I don't know what's going on and I don't know how to handle the situation because I don't know what to do to save someone from coughing up blood. Michael is dying right in front of my eyes and I can't think of a single fucking thing to do.

I tap on my wristband and dial Rose's number, she answers straight away as if sensing my distress.  _"Percy?"_

"I-I don't k-know what to do, he's...he's dying on me Rose- I-"

_"Who is?"_

"Michael, he's coughing up blood and I don't know how to save him...how to stop him from coughing up blood, Rose there's so much blood..."

_"Percy get Nico! He needs your help, Jordan has the remote which means he controls the factory go get him!"_ Rose urges me to help Nico.

"But-but what abotu Michael?"

_"There's nothing you can do about Michael...he's dead already...now go! Me and Luke will meet you there."_

I don't have time to question how Rose already knew about the remote, but I looked down at Michael's prone body and couldn't help but feel angry at myself for being so useless before I start running off to find Nico. Before we had split up, he had said he was going back to where the assembly line was to check and see if a new murder was going to be taking place.

If what Rose said was true, about Jordan having the remote with him and being able to control the factory then Nico was in serious trouble. I ran faster, hoping to get to the assembly line and find Nico looking around before he found me looking for him. He would scowl at me and call me dog and tell if I was too much of an idiot and needed help finding Michael. That's what I hoped would happen because there was this feeling in my gut that something wrong was going to go down.

When I got the assembly line, I heard a machine whirring to life and damn if my legs could go any faster. Because I wasn't looking where I was going, I collided with someone and heard a grunt of pain from the person as we both fell down, I landed on the floor on one side and the person who I crashed into landed on the other side. Looking up I found that it was Nico.

"Dog," he hissed, whispering harshly to me.

"You're okay..."

"Yeah, what are you doing here? I thought I told you to find Michael?"

"I did...he's dead...and no, I didn't kill him he just started to cough up blood before he died...what's going on, why are you running?"

Nico was about to answer me when a loud yell pierced through the factory, "Enforcer Nico! Come out, come out wherever you are!"

"Jordan is hunting me..." Nico puffed out his cheeks, "but the idiot is an idiot and he's a novice when it comes to taking people out..."

"But...he's got the-"

"Remote that controls the machines on him? Yeah, I know that but see he can't kill you himself, he needs the machines to do it. We get the remote, we gain control and we arrest him and Richard."

"So the plan is to get the remote out of his hand?"

"Precisely."

"Let's do it."

We split up and I round the corner of the machine I was hiding behind to see Jordan looking under and around other machines, most likely trying to find Nico. In his left hand, he's got a black little remote with several buttons on it. Taking out my TG gun, I look for the perfect opportunity to make a break across the other machine so that I could get close to him when all of a sudden, Nico runs out in the open and yells out...

"Here I am you big dumb idiot!"

Does he want a death wish? Jordan looks towards Nico and I get the perfect opportunity to shoot. My TG gun transforms and connects to my wristband, soon enough I hear the stats on Jordan and my gun suggests I use either the Sting or Doom. Figuring that we would need Jordan for questioning and decide to use Sting when suddenly, Jordan falls to his knees and grasps his head, screaming in pain. Not a second later, his head explodes, brain matter flying out and splattering across the floor and machinery.

Nico stops short, his mouth slightly hung open, probably looking like mine as we continue to stare at what the hell had just transpired when Rose and Luke come in and see Jordan's prone body laying in a pool of his own blood and brain matter.

"Same thing happened with Richard." Is all Rose says.

* * *

 

"The murders had been done by Michael, Richard and Jordan. All three men had been given this remote control to control the machines of the factory, it had been supplied by an anonymous source. We still don't know how that person even got to through the security and hard drive of the factory and were able to control the machines and tamper with the tapes but we do know that this case is now closed." Nico informed the President and VP that night which was around 4 in the morning. "I want you to know Mr. Hamilton, that this happened because of the bullying around here. Those three men were outcasts and they had been driven straight off the edge. Take a good look around your factory and make sure you get things straight around here. We wouldn't want another murder on our hands now would we?"

"Y-yes, thank you for your hard work Enforcers...we'll be sure to take care of the bullying problem. Right away," Mr. Hamilton was sweating buckets as he looked down at Nico.

"I sure hope so, let's go guys." Turning on his heel, he left the president behind without so much of a goodbye and we followed after him, Rose saying goodbye on Nico's part.

Getting into our cars, we drove out of here. The case had been closed, a bit unresolved but at least we found the men responsible for the crime. Rose had called Nico, and they were discussing what the hell had gone down at the factory. Someone had provided these three men with supplies so that they could carry out their revenge, then they had tampered with the tapes so that those three wouldn't get caught. How was it possible to even gain access to a place that was so guarded not just physically but also guarded technically. The technology was very advanced in that factory and it was sealed off from regular employees, the only access given to the motherboard was through the president and vice president of the factory.

So then, how the hell did someone get through all of that and provide these three lower rank, regular employees access to the machines. And why?


	9. Sometimes, Competition Kills

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So let me start off by saying I am so sorry this hasn't been updated, it's just that I had a really bad case of writer's block and it totally killed off my mojo but my mojo is back! Enjoy this new chapter that is pretty lengthy if I do say so myself.  
> Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson and The Olympians

_Sometimes, Competition Kills_

_One night before..._

"No! S-stop! Please! I'm begging you!" A lone man, about the age of thirty-five begged as he tried to back away from the person with an ax in his hands. His foot had been broken and he had been forced to crawl. His arm was hurting, his ribs felt bruised, his head felt like it was about to explode but none of that mattered because he was busy begging for his life to the man with the ax.

"Sorry man, it's just something I gotta do."

"No! NO! I don't understand! Why are you doing this! Why?! Please... don't kill me! No! NO! N-" The word died on his dead lips before it could be completed. His head rolled to the ground where it's wide blue eyes stared at the one responsible for his death, as if accusing him that all of this could have been avoided if only-

"It's just something I had to do..." was again whispered.

"Something you had to do, hm?" Another figure said, coming into the scene, "well then, let's get to cleaning up  _your_ mess."

* * *

 

_Nico_

"I can't believe you made me late hound," I glared at the dog next to me.

"Look, I said I was sorry, there's no need to rub it in my face!" He snapped.

"Oh, whatever." I rolled my eyes.

I walked briskly into the AECPC building with him following after me, and went to my office. Since yesterday a second desk had been added to accommodate the hound working with me and so my office looked and felt just a bit smaller but I could still do my work, so I wasn't complaining...so much. When we entered my office, I immediately took a seat and turned on my computer. Once it was on, I found an email from the head supervisor of the AECPC, it was about the report I had done three days ago regarding the incident at the meat factory. Although it seemed unrealistic, there was barely any evidence and so my supervisor had no other choice but to believe what Rose and I had written about our case.

It honestly baffled me how there was no evidence, no link, absolutely nothing connecting no one outside of the factory helping those three men plot their revenge against their coworkers. We had found the remote control that controlled the machines around the factory. After examining their bodies, we had found out that there had been this small, barely visible and undetectable wire that had been implemented from their necks to their brains, that had caused their heads to explode and it had been set with a timer. And a controllable timer at that, a controllable timer which meant that the person in control could trigger a small signal that was sent from the wire to the brain and caused the head to explode. Why, was something I had been asking myself ever since forensics told us about it.

Why would someone go through all of this trouble? What was to be gained from all of this? It was questions like these that kept me up and left me even more bewildered than before. Not only had these men killed, but they had been receiving help, and the help they had gotten, was the same help that took their lives.

If there was one thing to be said about the bastard or the bastards who did this, it was that this was well-thought. It was scary to think how thorough this person was. The way this person had thought of every single thing that could or could not go wrong, the way this person had taken precautions so as not to take the brunt of the outcomes should everything go sour. The way this person left behind no clues, no evidence, not even a single thing that pointed out that this person had been there, had been responsible. It almost seemed as though this person were not real, as if it were a ghost or just some figment of my imagination. Which is why I had been consistently questioning myself.

Had that case even been real? Was the question I asked myself from time to time, because it seemed all too perfect, well, for the one held accountable. So lost in my thoughts was I that I didn't even notice when Rose and Luke had stepped inside my office, although I did notice that they were present when Rose pinched my arm making me snap out of my daze and rub the area she had pinched me.

"Why did you do that?" I asked, glaring at the brown eyed girl.

"Because you weren't listening to me, I was half afraid you were asleep with your eyes open, weirdo. Anyway, as I was saying, we have a case." Rose presented me with a folder. "A gaming competition is happening this weekend and this morning one of the staff members helping out found the dead body of one of the competitors. We're going to check it out, see what happened, find the killer, save the day. Ya know, the usu." Rose rubbed her nose, smirking at me. "Are you ready?"

I glanced up at her, "let's do it."

Rose and Luke left my office and me and the hound started to get our things ready. I skimmed over the case and decided I would read the details in the car. I shut off my computer and made sure the security camera was still recording so that I would know if anyone stepped inside my office. Heading out with the hound in tow, we made our way to the parking lot of the building.

"Where's the case taking us this time?" The hound asked as we got inside my car. He was driving so that meant I had to spend time talking to him and explaining the case to him as I find out for myself. Then again, I suppose it'd be better than him going in blind.

"Well Rose explained it simple enough, but if your tiny little brain can't handle it, I guess I could dumb it down for you." His head turned toward me so fast, I thought he had given himself whiplash. I ignored the glare thrown my way and continued to read so that I could explain what we were going in to. "Some guy who was thirty-three years old got killed last night. His head had been chopped off, his left leg broken, his ribs fractured as well as his arm. No one knows who did it or even where the murder weapon is. The cameras got absolutely nothing too, which means this person covered their tracks pretty well...it's perfect...too perfect..." I continued to read over the facts.

_Johnny Lucas, 33 years old, married, game tester. He had been killed and nothing was found. Almost like that last case..._

"Nico?" I looked over to the dog and saw him staring at me with...was that concern? Why would he feel concern over me? Scowling, I nodded my head and looked back to the file.

"He was supposed to compete in this weekend's gaming competition that happens every two years. Sixteen of the best gamers around Attica are invited to play or compete in this game that will be released later on in three weeks for everybody to play. The fourteen competitors each compete and try to win, whoever wins they get a lot of money, close to one million dollars. It's a pretty big deal."

"Cool, I knew this existed but I had never been to one, I had learned about this around four years ago I think, anyway, I never went to one but man, did I wanna go." The dog blabbed on, as if I had asked him to share his life story.

"Well get ready because you're going to one and you're not going to play, you're going to work." I grunted.

"You're mean." He said and the rest of the ride was silent, which of course, I was grateful for.

It allowed me time to think. This case was mirroring the same exact thing that happened at the factory. Someone died, no one had seen a thing, and the security cameras had picked up nothing at all so they were going to be completely useless. The crime was too perfect, well-thought out, well-planned. It seemed like there was no way this could go wrong for whoever did it. Then again, the last case was the same thing. It was perfect, with the perfect scapegoats. So then, how come we had picked up on the trail. Well other than the fact that one of them had given a small piece away, it wasn't until the tapes came back that we gave chase to them.

Even then though, I thought to myself, we would have questioned them and would have gotten out how exactly they killed their coworkers, but we never got the chance because someone didn't want us to find out. Someone had been the one behind those attacks, someone had been the help and had been working behind the scenes. Someone didn't want to be found out yet at the same time, they did because they chose to blow their heads off and let us find those wires to let us know they were in control. They wanted us to know that they were behind the kills yet their identity was a secret and it would remain that way because this person(s), whoever they were, were always a step ahead.

That thought made me furious, because not only did this person have the audacity to kill, even if it was behind the scenes, but they also had the impudence to reveal themselves without fully revealing themselves, if that made any sense. The gall they had to let me know that they were the ones responsible, and not have a fear of getting caught irked me.

"Nico, we're here." I snapped out of my thoughts and looked out the window.

"Oh." I looked over to the hound and saw him staring at me, it was a bit unnerving for I had never really paid much attention to his eyes, not after that one time that they held me prisoner but now, in this close proximity, I found myself staring deeply into them. They were unique, I had never seen anything like them. They were blue but then again they were green, a mix of the two colors that didn't clash with each other but also didn't try to overcome the other and become the permanent color. They were light and inquisitive most of the time, as if he were playing a game and he didn't know the rules but he didn't care because he was a child at heart and children never cared much for rules. They could also be dark and mysterious, hiding his emotions from prying eyes. They reminded me of the sea. It had been such a long time since I'd last seen the ocean...

I got out of the car, no longer being able to look into his eyes anymore. Carrying the dossier with me and making sure my TG gun was with me, we made our way to the entrance of the convention, meeting Rose and Luke, who were already inside. We walked inside, going past the people waiting in line and past the security checkpoint. I looked back at the checkpoint and wondered if the competitors were supposed to go through that as well.

"So the person in charge of the convention and the owner of the building are going to be meeting with us, they're waiting for us inside their office." Rose informed me as we passed through.

All around us were people in costumes, some not of course, and games being played. I saw different people wearing elaborate costumes, some looked nicely done while others looked a bit...cheap, to say the least. There were loud noises all around us, and a lot of people would crowd around a certain stand, I would take a guess and say that the video game was popular.

There were a few stands selling food as well, like hot dogs, fries, fried funnel cakes and fried oreos, burgers, sandwiches, and pizza. The smell of those foods invading my senses and making me start to get hungry, I shook my head to get myself back into focus, if only I could say the same for my  _partner._ It looked like he was ready to eat everything in sight.

Which made me think back on how we had been living these past three days. So far, he was a clean person, that of course didn't make him any less of a nuisance, he could cook (with an amazing and surprising appetite, not to mention it seemed never-ending), of course so could I and he was very quiet while in his room. It prompted me to want to just barge in there and see what he's doing sometimes but that's besides the point. Since he moved in, along with the rest of the hounds moving in three days ago, I haven't gone out, not because I didn't want to but because I worked on that case just recently and well, it seemed as though we were all getting used to living with our hounds.

We continued to walk, passing by people, stands and gamers testing out and playing new games yet to be out. Soon enough, two men in suits came up to the four of us and sized us up.

"Are you from the AECPC?" One of them asked, he was a blond man with brown eyes.

"Yes," I answer him.

"Follow us please, we'll take you to Mr. Richards and Mr. Williams." The same blond informed us.

"Thank you," I say as the rest of us follow the two men as they lead us through a doorway further into the building. We turn a few corners, and walk up a few staircases before reaching a big office that overlooked the entire convention on all four floors. The office was big, with huge glass windows, the desk was off to the side while in the center there were a few couches where we could sit and be comfortable. The floor was black carpet and the walls were a light gray color, hanging on the walls were several TV screens that showcased a few of the things going on around the convention.

"Hello there," a voice catches my attention, and I turn to look at the speaker, it's a man by the age of forty-five, well he looks to be that age, salt and pepper hair, brown eyes and a few laugh lines and a crinkle around his eyes. The man next to him looks a bit younger, with black, curly hair, blue eyes and a more slimmer body. "You must be the Enforcers, thank god you've come." He continues, "my name is Dan Richards and the man next to me is named Isa Williams, please have a seat and we can get right to it."

"Thank you," I say and make my way to sit down the couch where Rose, and the hounds follow right after. "My name is Nico di Angelo."

"I'm Rose Fernandez," Rose introduces herself.

"I'm Luke Castellan."

"And I'm Percy Jackson."

"Now, about the murder that occurred yesterday night, can you tell us what happened or what you know?" Rose asked, going straight to the point.

"Yeah," Isa, the younger of the pair speaks first, "well me and Dan had left pretty early the night before since we needed to be here today early, since you know, today is the first day that the convention starts. Anyway, we left early and we had thought that all of the competitors had gone home, we had asked them to go home early to be prepared for today and so we did as well. All of a sudden, around three in the morning Dan and I each get a call from our staff and they tell us there's been a murder. They had already informed you guys and they called us soon after. We come to the scene of the AECPC taking the body away and informing us who was killed...we don't know anything..."

"The only thing we can tell you is probably who the person killed was but even then, I'm sure you guys already know...Isa and I are completely clueless." Dan spoke up, "we even tried checking the security cameras but...nothing appeared. It's like someone blocked the camera from picking up anything while the murder was being committed."

"Who else knows about the murder?" I ask them.

"Well the staff know and so do the other competitors, but other than them, none of the customers know. We thought of telling them sometime this afternoon..." Dan answered.

"You're gonna need to hold off on doing that," I said, "because we're going to be questioning everyone that knows about this, the less people that know, the better for us to narrow down who was responsible for such a horrendous crime."

"Will do Enforcer." Dan nodded his head.

"Thank you, now, we're going to need the names of everyone under your staff and the competitors, not to mention a map of the convention so that we know where we're going." I ask them both, wanting to get started on this case already.

"Right away, we'll send you all of our information right now," Isa said, going to the computer on the desk and typing away at a furious pace. A few minutes later, we all get a small ' _plink'_  signifying that we each got what I had asked for.

"Thank you, now," I turn to my companions, "let's split up into two pairs. Rose you're with your partner, I'm with mine."

"Roger," Rose says and soon the four of us leave the office. "Okay so me and Luke are going to take the west wing, you and Percy can take the east?" Rose asks me as we go down the stairs.

"Sounds fine." I say, mildly irritated that she would call the hound by his name. In fact, she had been doing that since the beginning, and it sort of bothered me.

"Okay, call me if you want to meet up and exchange info." Rose says before she splits from me, "let's go Luke."

* * *

 

"...thank you for your time," I sigh heavily as I walk by yet another person who has  _"no clue as to what's going on."_

Unbelievable really, that the hound and I could question just about everyone on our list and still not come close to finding out who the hell killed that guy last night. Every single person we questioned was clueless about what had gone down. No one had any idea about how it happened, much less provide a suspect.

"So now what?" The hound asked me, and I resisted the urge to roll my eyes.

"Now, we go find Rose and Luke and see if they have had any luck."

I walked ahead, to the place Rose and I had agreed to meet, with the dog following close behind. No matter what I could think of, I couldn't pin anyone on the murder because no one seemed like the right fit, no one seemed like the type of person to actually commit a murder. I could sit here all day and still not come close to figuring out who killed that guy and I wouldn't be any closer than right now.

Passing by more stands, my stomach started to growl and I finally realized that I hadn't consumed anything this morning other than coffee, since of course the hound made me late, and I was starting to get hungry. I looked around me to see if there was anything good nearby before walking over to a stand and waiting in line. This vendor was selling shish kebab, which was my second favorite food.

"Hungry?"

I turned around to my hound and saw him behind me, standing in line. "Yes."

"I've never had a...that before," He pointed to the meat the vendor was cooking. "Is it good?"

"It's delicious." I looked at him from the corner of my eye.

"I guess I'll buy myself one..."

After that, we waited in silence until it was my turn. I went up to the vendor and asked for two shish kebabs which were given to me on a container wrapped around in foil and a small piece of bread. I turned around to the hound and shoved one of them into his hands before walking over to a small table where I could eat my food in peace. I had seen the look of surprise on his face, and really, I couldn't blame him. He knew I didn't like him, so why would I buy him anything? It was simple really, even though I didn't like my hound, I wasn't heartless, I knew he hadn't eaten anything either so I bought him food. It was a basic instinct, not to mention, I needed him for the rest of this case.

It was awhile before he came to sit down by me and I had begun wondering if he had run off when suddenly, the hound placed two cans of soda in front of me. One was orange and the other was ginger ale.

"Thank you for the shish kebab, as I heard you say, but you forgot to get something to drink and I figured you'd be thirsty, so pick one." He offered, and I felt my cheeks flame up in embarrassment seeing as how I had forgotten my drink.

"Thank you, I'll take the ginger ale." I reach over for the can and pop it open, hearing the small  _fizz._

We ate in silence after that, something I very much appreciated. It gave me time to think some more about this case. It was weird how everyone I had interviewed with the hound, no one knew anything. The cameras had been tampered with and there were no prints of any kind left behind, not a single clue. Everyone seemed visibly upset to have lost him, although the competitors seemed a bit more distracted than the staff but other than that, nothing seemed to jump out at me. Nothing seemed to send signals to my mind, nothing.

This seemed too perfect.

I was tempted to ask the hound what were his thoughts on the case but then again, he was just a novice...but I was stuck, I had no idea what to do next to figure out who killed the victim. Not to mention I didn't have all of the facts yet, I still needed to hear what Rose found out with her hound. Maybe then, we could figure something out.

All of this was starting to stress me out, I decided to wait until Rose showed up so that we could combine what we found, despite the fact that I found very little, and figure out what to do from there. Finishing off the last piece of meat, I wrapped up the tinfoil and left inside the cardboard container the vendor had given me.

It wasn't long until Rose and Luke approached us, they sat down next to me and the hound, bringing in two chairs from another table, and I noticed they had gotten something to eat as well.

"Hey," Rose greeted us, "have you eaten anything?" She turned to look at me and then the hound, asking him the question and filled with genuine concern.

"Yeah, Nico bought us shish kebab," the hound answered for me and Rose turned to look at me with some sort of proud smile on her face that made me want to turn away with embarrassment.

"Onto things that matter," I interrupt, looking over at Rose, "Rose, what did you find? Please, tell me you found something."

Rose's smile quickly wore off and turned into a grimace, "I wish I could say that, but me and Luke got nothing, absolutely nothing. It's like the murder didn't even happen!"

"I was afraid you would say something like that," I shook my head, I couldn't believe that even Rose had found nothing.

"We questioned everyone and no one knew anything at all, the answers were all the same that somehow, they just blended in together. I couldn't find anyone that looked or acted suspicious enough because it was all just the...same." Rose continued, completely bemused.

"Now what?" Luke asked, looking from Rose to me, "do we just...leave the case unfinished?"

"That isn't an option," I shook my head, I was not going to leave this place without solving this case and shutting it closed. "We are..." I racked my brain for anything, anything at all to come to me, "we are going to stay here and...watch the games. Watch the competitors...because it was one of the competitors that was killed so forget the staff, watch the other contestants."

"You're right, it could have been a rival that killed the contestant," Rose said, catching on to my impromptu plan.

"Exactly, we've been questioning and looking for answers in the wrong places, well semi-wrong places. We were focused on the suspects as a whole when really we should have been focused on the participants who were going against each other. The staff have absolutely nothing to do with this, they're either volunteering or getting paid to do this. The ones who really benefit from this would be the winners of the competition that's taking place these next three days." I explain in further detail this spontaneous idea that was somehow, suddenly making sense.

"That makes a lot more sense," the hound chose that moment to speak up, "see these contestants are here competing in this new game that's going to be released three weeks after the competition takes place. The winner of the game gets to take home a big check, which means a lot of money is coming into play here. Someone must desperately need that money...so we've gotta look for someone who seems desperate enough do something crazy like...committing a murder."

"I like that idea Percy," Rose gave Percy a pat on the shoulder, which for some reason, I couldn't help but scowl at.

"Thank you."

"So it's settled," I interrupted, "we'll be watching the participants from now on instead, agreed?" I look around at the other three people around me who nodded their heads in agreement, "good."

"There's a panel showing in about 15 minutes," Luke spoke up, turning the attention of the three of us to him, "this panel is going to let the other contestants talk to fans and each other, usually there's trash talk involved and well, if we go there we get to have a feel of the contestants. Who they are, what they're like, they're attitude towards the competition, stuff like that and once we get a feel on each one, we can narrow down our search for the one responsible for the murder."

"Good idea Luke, well, let's finish up here and let's get out there to the panel." I say and soon enough, Rose and Luke pick up their trash to throw it out.

All four of us walk around the convention until we ask a personnel where they were hosting the panel where all the contestants would be talking to fans. After one of the employees had directed us to the third floor, we made our way to an elevator which was crowded by people. Some in costumes, others in normal clothing, either way, it was still way too crowded. It didn't matter that people were going to different floors and would get off at their desired level, because even when you thought that it was soon going to become less congested, more people got on. And so, we rode the congested elevator up to the third floor, where once we got off, we finally could breathe.

"Oh god, there were too many people on that elevator," Rose complained as she started to fan herself despite it not being hot at all.

"Let's keep moving," I told them, wanting to get any clue, any clue at all that could lead me to the person responsible for the murder.

I walk over to a section that's being closed off where people are waiting in line, and see that that is where the panel is being held at. I walk straight up to security and show my badge, Rose, the hound and Luke also show their badges and they let us through. As I walk past fans in chairs, the room where the panel is being held in is overwhelmingly full of people, I see the competitors already talking to one another and fans. I notice that there are three women and the rest are men, with only one chair empty and that, I deduce, is the empty seat of Johnny Lucas.

I make my way to the sidelines, where I would be out of focus from the competitors so that I could see exactly how they act when I'm not around. There was something I noticed just now that I should have noticed earlier, and that was the fact that everyone had been very polite and cooperative with me and the hound when we questioned them. But, I'm willing to bet that they don't really act like that at all, I'm sure that they only acted that way because of my status as an Enforcer but if I were anyone else...how would they have acted when questioned about Johnny Lucas' death?

In this moment though, the contestants were anything but nice. There they all sat answering questions from the group of people gathered, and even though the competitors were nice to them, they weren't exactly pleasant with the other participants. In fact, there were two very aggressive, and very obviously belligerent contestants on the panel with the rest of the competitors that were trash talking about the other until it seemed that the things they were saying started to sound repetitive. Not to mention the vulgar words they were using, and in front of others as well, it's like they had no shame, as if they weren't self-aware as to how bad they sounded to others.

And the rest, well they seemed normal enough. None of the rest stuck out as the kind of people to be able to do such a crime and still be okay the next day, but those two aggressive men were certainly ones that should be kept on close watch.

Soon enough, the questions and the trash talk ends, and the contestants start to dissipate, each saying goodbye to the crowd and going their own way. An announcement is made that the competition is going to start soon and the crowd starts to make their way to where it's going to be held at.

"Okay, so was I the only to notice those two very aggressive guys going at it like crazy, or what?" Rose turned to look at me, Luke and the hound.

"No, I think we all noticed." Luke cleared his throat, looking to where one of the violent men had gone off to.

"So the plan is that we split up into two and we each follow one of them, one of those guys has  _got_  to be the killer," I started, "we follow them, see how they act and try to find evidence against them. Then, once we get enough evidence, we make the arrest. Sound good?'

"Sounds like a plan, not a well thought-out plan but a plan nonetheless," Rose nodded her head.

"Okay, let's split up, we meet back at the shish kebab stand in two hours tops," I tell them and with one final nod, we split up into two.

The hound and I follow one of the competitor's, the one that had gotten violent with the other aggressive one, his name, I read on my wristband, is Jacob Smith. I look over his personal files and see that he has seen treatment for his aggression, although from the looks of things from today, those treatments haven't been working. The hound and I follow as discreetly as possible but it's obvious that his attention is elsewhere and not on us.

We see him go from stand to stand, sometimes some people come up to him but he doesn't even give them the time of day, ignoring them or giving them dirty looks. It looks like most people know to avoid him because they steer clear of him when he passes by, as if already used to his mannerisms.

Finally, I see him entering a restroom and the hound and I follow after him, each of us going into a different stall than the one he's using, when suddenly, his phone rings.

I press my left ear to the wall of the stall so that I could hear better, "...nah, that Johnny Lucas is dead..."

A pause there.

"...got this in the bag, I mean sure, there are plenty of competitors out there who..."

"...nah, man, Johnny wasn't even that good of a gamer..." he snorts a bit, "making him seem like a fuckin' victim or some shit..."

So far, this guy was not making his case any stronger...babbling about the death of a contestant to someone outside of the competition wasn't going to help him out at all.

"...mean yeah he was killed and all that shit, but uh..."

I had heard enough, I decided to go to Rose and see what she had on the other contestant, Freddie Henderson, before doing anything rash. With a knock on the hound's stall, a signal to get him to come out, we made our way out of the bathroom.

"Well that was interesting..." he said as we walked in the direction of the shish kebab stand, I had already sent a message to Rose, telling her to meet me and the hound over there.

"I agree."

The hound and I wait around for Rose and Luke to get there. I'm sitting down re-reading the dossier while the dog is busy playing a game on his phone.

"Hey," I look over at him once I hear him talking.

"Yes?"

"I thought the lady who created Attica was like, very big on not wanting violence or wanting to expose her citizens to violence..."

"The 'lady'?" I ask, scoffing a bit, "her name is Gaea, and yes, you are correct."

"Then how come there are video games out here with shooting and killing? And with books and music coming into Attica, they have to be monitored?"

"Because video games are just a past time, something that's visual that doesn't necessarily bring on emotion when playing it. Books and music, they can make you feel things, at least that's what Gaea believes and it's somewhat true, I agree."

"Why?" He looked at me.

"Because you read a book, and the words that the author has written, you feel like they describe whatever it is that you're feeling so perfectly, words are like magic, they make you feel things, and a writer, when they write a story it's like they put pieces of their soul into their work...same thing with music, music can make you feel so many things...it can make you feel alive..." I look over at him and I see him staring at me with something akin to kindness...I don't like it for some reason, and I have to do something, anything to look away from him, but he's got me prisoner with his stupid eyes. His goddamn, oh so vividly, stupid blue-green eyes.

"Hey!" I flinch once I realize that Rose is suddenly there, looking at me and then at the hound and then back at me. "Everything...okay?"

"Yeah," the hound answers quickly, regaining his composure and smiling at Rose as if they were the best of buddies, "everything is fine."

"We need to talk." I grunt out and refocus my attention to the case at hand.

"Well can we make it quick? I sort of let my guy go because you said you had something, and who knows what Freddie is up to..." Rose scratched her cheek.

"Well, that's not gonna matter because I think we have our killer," I look up at her surprised visage.

"Really? No way," Rose asks, disbelievingly.

"Yeah, the hound and I followed Jacob into a restroom where he started talking to someone on the phone and let out details of the murder, mostly the basic ones but he didn't sound at all unhappy about someone getting killed."

"Not to mention he had said that it was better for him, because that meant he had to worry about competing with less people, something is definitely up with that guy." The hound put in.

"Whoa, this is major, well where is he now?" Rose asked, "the more evidence we can find against him, the faster we can wrap up this case."

"We..." I grimace at my beginner mistake of leaving the target alone. Especially when I could have left the hound trailing after him while I regrouped with Rose and Luke. "We, uh, we left him in the restroom...by himself..."

"Nice one," Rose says sarcastically, "let's go bitches, time to move! We don't wanna lose him now!" Rose says as she starts jogging away.

"Wait!" I call after her, "you don't even know which restroom of which floor!" I say as I run after her.

* * *

 

"Well, this sucks, we are at another dead end and another death on our hands..." Rose scrunches up her nose as the people from the AECPC continue to photograph the evidence of another murder at the convention... the death of Jacob Smith.

"Time to regroup...again," I sigh as the four of us move out of the way. Half of the floor has been closed off due to the murder that has just recently happened, not to mention people are starting to panic and freak out. I had thought it would be best to cancel the whole thing but if the owner did that, then it would be the same as letting the killer go and so, without chancing the risk of letting the killer get away, the convention must go on.

"What did we do wrong this time?" Luke asked as we sat around a table, trying desperately to figure out what went wrong.

"We had thought he was the killer when really he was just a competitive gamer, nothing else..." Rose mumbled.

"Wait...didn't we also become suspicious of that other guy?" The hound pointed out, "Freddie?"

"Yes, we did," I say cautiously, already the gears in my head turning and knowing exactly where the hound was getting at.

"Well, Rose and Luke did leave him alone as well, rookie mistake Enforcer Rose," the hound looked over at Rose and smirked at her, and for some reason, I found it extremely irritating.

"That is correct," Rose clicked her tongue and smiled at him. "Okay, so that settles it, Freddie is our new suspect. Let's go after that bastard."

The plan seemed incredibly simple now that we had our suspect. The accused seemed to fit, he had been just as aggressive as Jacob and most likely had thought the same thing about Johnny being out of the way. Not to mention, Rose and Luke had left him, no longer following him while the four of us talked, so for all we knew, he could have killed Johnny and then Jacob. Now it was all a matter of gathering evidence against Freddie.

A solid confession from the man himself could definitely help but it's not like that would ever happen. No, we needed to catch him in the act, that or see if he was receiving help from anyone.

"Well then, let's go have a little chat with Freddie." I get up from the table, I look at the three of them and with a small nod, we all get up to go find Freddie. Little did we know that another murder had happened.

...

"Her name was Alicia Vargas, she was 21 years old. A few people said they saw her just walking around a few of the stands here, just looking at things, saying hi to people, talking to them. She was one of the nicest competitors around. Anyway, she goes off somewhere alone and next thing you know, someone finds her dead." Inspector Hank tells me and Rose, he had come in with the cleanup crew from the AECPC and had come in to cleanup the last death. And would have gone back if only this death hadn't happened...and on my watch, too.

I look over at Alicia, golden blonde hair, somewhat reminding me of Annabeth's hair. Her face is pale, devoid of blood and life...while her neck is sliced clean through. Her wide blue eyes are...still open. I wanted to close them, I felt that they were looking at me, boring deep into my soul as if somehow cursing me for her death, for not finding out who the killer was sooner, for not doing everything I could to stop that person. They're angry, she's angry at me, she had so much more to live for and it was stolen from her. All because some psycho decided to just kill some innocent girl. It was time to end this. Now.

"Thank you Inspector Hank," I say curtly, "I'm going to get to the bottom of this. Let's go Rose."

"Right." Rose nods at me.

The both of us turn away from the scene and exit through the white flap the AECPC have put to shield away the gruesome scene from the rest of the people. The last thing we need is for people's hue to start getting out of wack.

"Enforcers!" Someone calls out to the four of us and we stop to see who, it's Mr. Richards and Mr. Williams.

"Mr. Richa-" I start, only to be cut off.

"What the hell is the meaning of this?! I thought you guys were supposed to take care of the problem? Now there's three murders that have been committed? And two of them were on your watch!" Mr. Richards fumes, his face is growing red, there's fear and panic written all over his face and clear as day in his eyes, I know he doesn't mean to blow up on us, he's just too scared of what can happen next. Because of that, he's taking it out on us, because it's easier to blame us. "The fans, the staff and the contestants are all fearing for their lives now, what am I going to tell them?"

"Mr. Richards, please calm down, we have our suspect now, all we've got to do is catch him, but I promise, we're going to end this right now." I try to calm down Mr. Richards, hoping that he would be able to have a level head while we finished closing up this case. That bastard was going down, no more taking the lives of innocent people, it was time for Freddie to pay his dues...

...I didn't know how true that sentence was until I saw Freddie's dead body being photographed for evidence.

"No way..." Rose whispered a bit breathlessly, her eyes glued to Freddie's body, his head still had the ax embedded in deep.

"Three people are dead," Luke started, "and the one person we had thought was our guy turned out to be another victim...what the hell do we do now?"

"Back to the drawing broad, I guess." The hound stated.

I turned around, growling lowly beneath my breath. This was unbelievable. Four deaths, two victims had been two of the ones I was sure had committed the murder but now...now I wasn't so sure. This case was driving me nuts! How could someone murder these four people without  _anyone_ witnessing anything at all? How could the security cameras  _not_ pick up anything? How could  _one person_ do all of this, without raising suspicion from either myself or Rose? This person has gone right under noses, killing these innocent people, and we know close to nothing of who the hell it could be!

I was beyond frustrated, I was pissed, I needed to do something about this or I felt I was going to go insane! I could not lose my composure on this case. Not only would I seem incompetent, which I loathe, my mind would get foggy and clouded with other thoughts, I could miss something important if I let that happen. I needed to stay calm, and clear my head. I needed to refocus my attention and go back through every little detail and see if I missed anything.

Walking off to an empty table, I sat down and inhaled deeply, before expelling slowly. To get my mind back in order, I would first need to relax myself. I needed to calm down, rearrange my thoughts and pay attention to every little detail. Easier said than done since I was pretty close to panicking because things weren't in my control, not to mention I had never worked a case before where the kills were happening as I was working it. I've never had an unsuccessful case, I don't fail, I never do...yet this case was throwing me out of sync.

I was the lead in this case, I needed to know exactly what to do next except...I had no idea what to fucking  _do_  next.

"Nico, what do we do now?" Rose asked me. I look over at her and notice the hound and Luke also looking at me, waiting for me to figure out what happens next. I couldn't focus, too many things were going on inside my brain, my mind was frazzled.

"I...have no clue as to what we do now."

* * *

 

_Percy_

I could already see Nico losing his cool, from the moment we found Alicia's body. Nothing was turning out to be what it had first seemed, which obviously frustrated us all. Now, we had to go back and look through every competitor and think of them each as being a possible suspect. In total, there had been 16 contestants, four were dead so now there were 12 in total. Twelve to question, to see which one of them had done those terrible deeds, to see who looked the most guilty. It was going to be very difficult.

And boy was I right.

Not only had we gone back to the start but now we were all at odds with each other. We each had our own suspects or who we thought committed the murder it's just none of us agreed with each other. First, because of our blunders from before, eliminating everyone and going straight for the two aggressive people who were competing and then not getting enough evidence yet still thinking they were the ones behind the kills. Now, Nico and Rose were becoming very thorough with the whole thing, neither backing down when one of them thought that this person was the one we were looking for.

Things were especially harder since we had no idea where to even begin to look for clues that could tell us if the killer was male or female. We didn't even have a face to match the killer, we were all going off based on instinct.

So now, we were all arguing, at odds with each other and getting absolutely no where.

"Look," I cut in, making sure to be heard over Nico and Rose yelling at each other, "there's four of us here, and twelve contestants out there, one of them has got to be the killer but we have no face to match so we're going to need to see for ourselves  _who_ could possibly be the killer. I suggest we split up and each take four of the people we're suspecting could be the murderer and we question them. And I mean, really question them, so that we could get a good read on them, then we come back and tell each other the information we gathered. Sound good?" I look to the three of them.

"I think it sounds like a good plan," Luke spoke up, smirking my way, "and here I thought you were just a pretty boy."

"Oh shut up," I roll my eyes at him.

"That sounds like a really good plan, not only do we have more one on one with them but we can narrow down our options to figure out who's the one behind these crimes." Nico started, "okay, since Rose and I are the more seasoned Enforcers, we'll each take four but Luke and the hound could each take two, since there's four of us and twelve in total." I frowned slightly when Nico called Luke by his name but refused to call me by mine. "Once we get a good enough read, we'll meet back here. If none of us are here, someone has to stay and wait for the next person to come but it's a must that we all meet before even thinking about arresting someone. Are we clear?"

"Yes sir," Luke gives Nico a two-fingered salute, "crystal clear."

"Good, let's split up and take down this sicko."

...

I had interviewed a woman named Claire and a man named Alex, separately of course, and my read on both of them was...well, let me put it this way, nothing about them had exactly triggered something that made them seem suspicious but then again, something about one of them, Alex, seemed...strange. It was hard to put into words the vibe that I got while questioning Alex but...it was definitely weird. I shrugged it off, I was still going to mention this to the others when we regrouped but I hoped that Rose and Nico found a suspect within their group.

Making my way to where we were all supposed to meet up, I walked around and glanced at the different stands near me, looking at the different games they sold and watching the people that played them. It reminded me of when I would come home and just relax, eat food from my fridge that mom always had stocked and just go up to my room and play video games. I missed those days with a passion, back when things were simpler and none of the shit that happened to me well, happened. I was happy and free.

"...ink it's time...to get  _rid_ of another player..."

My ears perked up at the sound of that, my consciousness pulling me out of my daydream. Who the hell said that? And what was that person talking about. I stopped walking and stayed as still as possible, keeping my head down low and hiding behind a rack of games on display.

"Look, I-I know that the Enforcers are getting hot on the trail but they still don't know it's me...this is the last one...I promise. Just please, help me...I need this money, I need to win!" Was whispered harshly. The voice sounded familiar, too familiar.

Quickly, I rounded the corner and peeked out to see who was talking...only to find Alex with his back turned to me and whispering on the phone. He was alone between racks of video games, looking around to see if anyone was hearing the conversation. Quickly, I ducked back into my hiding place and slowly and quietly tried to make my way out so that I could find either Nico or Rose.

"The next one is Thomas. I'll meet you by the staircase that leads to the roof."

With that last bit of information, I made my escape making sure I hadn't been noticed.

* * *

 

_Nico_

It truly was unbelievable how I could not find a single person who seemed guilty enough to commit these crimes. I had just finished interviewing my last person before I decided to make my way back to the place I was supposed to meet with the others. I had no such luck trying to find the person who could be the killer within the group I got but hopefully the other three got  _something_ at least.

As I was walking back, my mind drifted off, trying to come up with a solution.

Maybe I was looking at this the wrong way, instead of trying to see who  _looked_ guilty of killing, I had to see who the hell had  _motive_ for killing...I only had the background that Mr. Richards had given me but they barely contained anything about the gamers. It only mentioned about their personal lives, as much as it could give, their jobs, what they did for a living, what they did before that got them to this place now, their education and if they had any problems before with the Enforcers or not. But what about...things that they didn't  _want_ to share?

Quickly, while the thought was fresh in my mind, I dialed Calypso's number, I was  _going_ to figure this case out.

_"Yes Nico, what can I do for you?"_ Came Calypso's voice through my watch.

"Calypso, I need you to do me a favor."

_"And what's that?"_

"I need you to dig up dirt, and I mean a lot of dirt on these twelve people who's names I am going to be sending you. I need you to thoroughly check these people out."

_"Twelve?"_

"Yes."

_"Okay, send the names through, I'll try to be quick but also thorough."_

"Thanks, you're the man." I smirk, knowing fully well how she disliked when I said that to her.

_"Oh shut it you."_

Our conversation ended and I continued to walk to the meeting place, my spirits lifting just a bit with renewed confidence.

"Nico!" A voice called out to me, and I looked over to see Rose and the hound running to me, Luke was also running to me but coming from another direction. "I am so glad we found you!"

"Why? What's up?" I asked, my eyebrows furrowing, confusion clear on my face.

"I think we just found our guy." Rose answered.

"Who?"

"Alex Rodriguez." The hound answered me. "I overheard him talking to someone over the phone, he somewhat admitted to killing the contestants because he was saying he wanted to  _"get rid of another person"_ and that  _"this was going to be the last one"_ so I figured, this is our guy."

My mind was racing with this new information. If the hound had heard him kind of admitting he committed the crime, then this meant that he was the killer. Now, I just needed Calypso to look up dirt on Alex Rodriguez. I sent a message to Calypso telling her to forget about digging up dirt on the other contestants and to just focus on getting information on Alex Rodriguez.

"Well what are we waiting for? Let's go get that bastard." I say, "Hound, take the lead."

"Seriously?" He asked, looking at me stupidly.

I rolled my eyes and huffed slightly, "yes, seriously, you're the one who found the killer, go get him."

"Right, let's go." He stumbled and turned around from the way he and Rose had come from.

All of four of us walked quickly, almost jogging to catch Alex before he took another life. We couldn't exactly flat out run because we now knew he had a partner on the outside and who  _knew_ who that person was, we couldn't arouse suspicion, not when we were so close. We turned a corner and walked up to this stand that was selling video games, a ton of them on these racks.

"Here's where I overheard him." The hound told us, "he said he was going to meet someone by the roof..." slowly, he trailed off and looked straight ahead. The hound's jaw clenched slightly, a small curse leave his mouth before he took off sprinting across the room, the rest of us calling out to him before going after him, running to try to catch up. He looked back at us and yelled, "he's getting away! He's found out we're looking for him, hurry!"

"Let's split up, that way he won't get away!" I yell, catching up to the others who had taken off before me, "Rose, Luke, go off to one side, me and the hound are gonna be on his tail!"

"Got it boss!" Rose said before her and Luke broke off from us and went another way.

We saw Alex burst through one door and running up a flight of stairs, the hound and I were hot on his trail, running up the stairs, taking them two at a time to try to catch up. Before we knew it, we had reached the roof of the convention center and saw him dancing along the edge, trying to catch his breath, his hands on his knees.

I tried to catch my breath as well, slowly walking up to him until he abruptly stood up and glared at the hound and I. "Stay back." He said, his voice hoarse as he backed away. "Stay...back."

"We just want to know why you did it?" The hound spoke gently, trying to calm him down.

"And who you're working with." I demanded, I couldn't let this opportunity slip.

"No. I knew you were going to ask that, but I'm not talking and you're not gonna make me  _talk_." He spat out, glaring at me. "You won't be able to make me either."

"Want to bet?" I asked, challenging him.

"Oh yeah I do, you can't make a dead corpse talk." He said before suddenly throwing himself off the edge and falling to his death. I looked on in horror, my eyes wide as I slowly approached the edge of the roof, looking down to see if what I just saw had  _actually_ happened. I look over and see his dead body, broken from the massive fall, blood seeping out from his body, a dark red, so dark it almost looked black. His head was turned in an unnatural angle, it looked like his head had cracked open.

"Oh,  _gross_!" The hound said, he was suddenly next to me.

"Nico, Percy." We were both startled out of looking down at the broken figure that had picked to die, taking others with him, and saw Rose and Luke making their way to us, carrying a black duffel bag. "You won't believe what me and Luke found."

"We thought he would run into the locker rooms where everyone kept their stuff to try to get any evidence he left behind, so we went there and we found his duffel bag." Luke explained.

"As well as an agenda with a list of names of the contestants that were going to be competing." Rose showed me and the hound this black pocketbook. "The names that are crossed out are the ones he had...taken care of. Other than that, there's no evidence that he was even working with anyone. We're gonna need to pull it out of when we question him..."

"Good luck with that." The hound said sarcastically, "look over the edge and you'll find him."

Rose let out a huff of irritation while Luke walked over and looked over the edge, cringing before backing away. "This is just great," I start saying, "we have no idea who his partner was, we have no idea what his motive was, we have killer on our hands to bring to justice because he took the easy way out and killed himself...I have absolutely nothing."

Suddenly a beep sounded in the quiet air that had fallen over us, because we knew we had failed the mission. I looked down and saw Calypso calling me, I pressed a button to answer and pressed another so that she could be on speaker. "Hey Calypso," I said in a tired voice.

_"Looks like someone is happy to hear from me,"_ she replied sarcastically.

"I'm sorry it's just...it's been a long day." I rubbed on one of my eyes until I saw white dots dance in front of me.

_"Then I guess this should cheer you up, remember the name you gave me, Alex Rodriguez?"_ That had my interest peaked and suddenly all four us looked down at my watch, listening intently to what she had to say.

"Yes?" I waited for her to continue.

_"Well it looks like Alex was in serious debt and with some very bad people."_

"What do you mean?" I asked, curiosity getting the best of me.

_"What I mean is Alex kept borrowing money, not sure from who but neighbors say that different guys would come to his door late at night and demand Alex pay his dues or else. I'm guessing that he either had to pay with money or pay with his life. He lost all of the money he borrowed by gambling and never won anything to give back, apparently the person he borrowed money from got tired of it. These people he owed money to, I don't exactly know who they are. I don't think they're in the system...but I do know that they are very dangerous."_

"So his motive was to win this competition and give back the money he owed before he could get killed." I said.

_"More than likely,"_ Calypso agreed with me.

"Hey, look what I found." Rose said, pulling out what looked like a small gun. "It's a tranquilizer gun, very small and silent when it shoots. Maybe he used this to tranquilize the people he killed so that they wouldn't make any...noise?"

"That way he wouldn't get caught...at least not as quickly as he could have been." Luke looked over at me as he said this.

_"My guess is that you were right Nico,"_ Calypso interrupted,  _"Alex was probably working with someone else. The tapes you sent me are damaged and nothing is salvageable but if you could get his phone, maybe I could go through and see who was helping him?"_

"Good idea, hound, do you see the phone he was on anywhere?" I ask the dog, looking over to see him standing up and walking up to the phone face down on the ground, before he could get any closer though, the phone suddenly exploded, pieces of the phone going off in different directions.

"No fucking way," Rose looked on in disappointment.

_"Let me guess, the phone just exploded..."_

"Yeah..." I answer Calypso.

"Just great," Rose lets out a puff of air, "now what? We've got nothing!"

"We have his motive and that should be enough," I tell her, "we have proof with his agenda and the gun, we have dirt on him, we'll make our report with what we've got."

_"I'll have everything ready for the both of you by the time you guys get back."_

"Thank you Calypso."

With that, we tell Mr. Richards and Mr. Williams that we've solved the case, the AECPC and Inspector Hank are back to clean up the last dead body, the convention has been shut down for the next two days before resuming after that and the four of us make our way to our cars so that we could go back to the AECPC.

"Nico?' The hound interrupts the silence I had been enjoying on the drive back.

"Yes?" I indulge him.

"Are there...any gangs in Attica and Tribeka?"

My eyebrows furrow before I answer him, wondering what brought on this question. "No, why do you ask?"

"I just..." he struggled briefly before shaking his head, "nevermind."

Once back at the AECPC building, the hound and I walked into my office. There was nothing more that I wanted to do than to go home and relax but I still had write that report and send it to the higher ups. I took off my jacket and hung it on the rack beside my door before going over to my desk.

"Hey," the hound spoke up, "what's that on top of your folders?"

I looked over the pile of blue folders I had on the far side of my desk, and saw a purple note attached on top of them. I ripped the note up and read what it said.

_Competition is killer, huh? Brings out the worst in people, especially when they're desperate._

The hound came over to read the note over my shoulder. "Who the hell wrote that?" He asked.

"I have no idea."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter is in the works!


	10. Traces Of The Past

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone, here's a new chapter to Resistance and I hope you guys like it. I know, it was waaaaayyyy overdue and I am a horrible person but I hope you all can forgive me, an explanation will be given at the bottom so that you all can get on with the story and then read about my life. Now get ready for this chapter because it is over 15k long so strap in!  
> Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson and The Olympians

_Traces of The Past_

"Wait! W-wait! Please!" A boy shrieked, trying with all of his might to move his unresponsive body. "Please...let me go...J-J-"

"Shush, I swear this is...going to be over soon enough," a familiar voice to the boy spoke, the _clank_ of metal resounding in the quiet.

"Wh...why?" The boy sobbed, "why man? What did I ever do to you?"

"Oh, absolutely nothing, I'm just curious is all..." the voice answered, moving about and around his worktable.

"What did you do to my body?! Why can't I move?!" He struggled once more to move but found he couldn't, it was like his limbs didn't want to cooperate with him.

"Oh that, I paralyzed you from the neck down by injecting you with a paralyzer so there wouldn't be permanent damage," the other boy informed him, "not that it really matters..." he whispered more to himself, but the paralyzed boy heard him.

"Wh-what?" The paralyzed boy stopped struggling, his eyes widened considerably and watered, his lower lip quivered, fear could be felt off of him in waves, "why?! WHY?!" He sobbed, tears spilling from his eyes.

"Now, hold still," the other boy chuckled, "as if you'd be moving any time soon."

"Fuck you!"

"This...might hurt," the other boy said, he reached over with his right hand and picked up a scalpel, "a lot," he then positioned the scalpel over the paralyzed boy's chest vertically and sliced carefully downward.

_"Ahhhh!"_ The paralyzed boy screamed, "what are you _doing_ to me?!"

"Slicing you open...I want to see your heart..." the other boy said, as if in a trance. "Let me hold your beating heart."

* * *

 

_Percy_

I see him, even now.

I see him in my dreams and I can't stop thinking about him. Somehow, my anger towards him has grown over the years, mostly because I had left the matter unresolved and I never got closure. Things ended but not the way I would have liked them to have ended. Which is why even now, after all this time, I still think about _him,_ I still think about Ben.

I guess my hatred for Ben didn't start until much later in my life, and by much later I mean a year and a half after _that_ had happened. It had only festered inside me, especially when I think back on the shitty excuse he gave me for...cheating on me. Look, I know I had said that we had gone our separate ways and I saw him hanging with this new guy but, truth was, he cheated on me. And I guess it never really sunk in how much it had hurt me until I was close to being done with high school.

What especially sucked was that he cheated on me with someone I had once considered a very good friend, in fact, it was the same _friend_ that had helped me 'become a man' per se.

I had caught them together one very bad night. It was a terrible night; one night in which the gods seemed really pissed what with how hard it was raining. Visibility was poor, seeing as how I was riding my bike in the middle of the night out in the cold rain. I had even almost crashed a couple of times, guess I should have seen that as a bad omen or something.

Anyway, the reason of why I was even _going_ to my buddy, Travis's place was because he owed me money. We had placed a bet over two months ago and he hadn't paid me yet, and I really wanted the money since I was planning on doing something for my mom's birthday which was coming up. Why on earth didn't I just wait 'til tomorrow? I would never know, I just knew that I had to get the money that night or...I just had to do it. It was almost instinctual.

Travis lived in a really nice place seeing as how his parents were loaded, and so as I walked through the lobby of the building where he lived, I couldn't help but wish I could live someplace like this when I got older. Stepping out of the elevator, I made my way to Travis's door and knocked on it. Already, even from down the hall, I could hear loud music blaring throughout, and I knew for a fact Travis was not going to hear any amount of knocking or ringing of the doorbell, so why waste my time?

I tried the door knob and, honestly, I didn't think it would actually be unlocked but it was. So, I went inside.

"Travis?" I called out as I made my way inside, hoping he wouldn't mind me being completely soaked and dripping all over the place. "Hey, Travis?" I tried again, hoping he'd hear me.

A popular rock band was blasting out from the speakers, so loud you could barely hear yourself think. I made my way from the foyer and into the living room where I was met with a sight that wasn't all surprising.

I saw beer, cigarette butts and clothes strewn around on either the black leather couch or the floor, having seemed to have been taken off in a hurry.

"Tra...vis?" I called out again, hoping I wasn't intruding on anything.

"Stoooooop!" came the playful laughter that was quickly followed by the very naked figure of a boy I had once thought wholesome, the world, innocent... _mine._

_Ben?_

No...no way.

It had to be someone else.

It had to be someone who just...looked like him. That was it, that was all it was. It was a person that looked like Ben.

And yet, he had just dashed into the living room, clutching nothing but a bed sheet around his torso and laughing with the man who was just as naked, but with a bit of tattoos on some of his body parts, he sauntered into the room with a pair of handcuffs dangling off a finger.

"Come on babe, come to Dadd..." he began, only for the words to die out as soon as he noticed me, standing there off to the side, seemingly blending in with the background.

Ben was a little slow on the uptake, since he was busy lighting up a cigarette, I didn't even know he smoked, _heh,_ when he finally realized his lover was no longer chasing after him.

"What made you... _oh!_ "

His breathless gasp of shock would have made me laugh if it wasn't for the dull throb of rage that was beginning to paint my world a muted shade of red.

In that moment I felt anger bubbling up inside me and I saw nothing but the dark red of blood, yet, I didn't react. Shock was written all over my face and yet I couldn't seem to give out an outward reaction, but internally, I was struggling to make sense of what I was seeing even though I knew exactly what was there in front of my eyes.

"Per...Percy..." he began with an expression that was a cross between fear and irritation. "It's not what you think..."

_Not what I think? Not what I think? You fucking asshole! You're over here, sleeping with someone else, smoking cigarettes and acting like someone you're not and you're telling me it's not what I think?!_

"I just..." he fumbled around for an excuse to say, "I just...lost interest..." the last word came out a bit breathless and I couldn't help but feel my body tremble with rage, anger.

"What do you mean you _lost_ interest?" I ask, in a voice that sounded very unlike me. It was deeper...colder...detached from the happy-go-lucky Percy they both knew, or at least thought they knew. They must have realized it as well because Ben took a step back and seemed to shrink in size, as if hoping to make himself seem smaller, and Travis seemed to have straighten up just a bit more. He seemed to have tensed, just a bit.

That's right. They had never me seen me pissed off, have they? Well, welcome to the monster you both created.

"I'm...I'm so-sorry Percy." Ben tried to speak once again, but there was a slight tremble to his words, a slight quiver of the lips.

I look him straight in the eye and smile a cynical smile, one without any humor in it, "you know..." a mirthless chuckle escaped through my lips, "I don't know what I find funnier, the poor excuse you just gave me or the fact that I was actually this fucking dense to not notice...go fuck yourself Ben, we're done. Then again, we were already done right?"

I wake up staring at the ceiling, my mind blank for awhile. At times, I would usually wake up like this. Especially when my mind wandered off to the past, when it touched Ben or Danny... I always go back to them, no matter how hard I try to forget my past it always just...comes back to haunt me.

I can never forget Ben's brown eyes or his light brown, curly hair. And I can never forget Danny's beautiful smile, she would smile so wide and I could see her gap teeth that just made her all the more beautiful.

It's like my mind can't let it go, can't let _them_ go. Sometimes it drives me insane. And sometimes I'm filled with curiosity, especially when it comes to Ben. I wonder what's he up to now, how his life's been, if he...still thinks about me from time to time. Because some part of me, some foolish, hopeful part of me, believes that at some point while we were dating, he really did love me. That he felt at least _something_ for me...that he felt the same way or some sort of semblance-I stopped myself.

I couldn't think like that. I had given everything to him, I treated him like he was the most precious thing in the world. I tried my hardest to be the perfect boyfriend, sure sometimes we would get into fights but what couple didn't have arguments? Everything I did, I did for him and for him to just...cheat on me? To just get rid of me like as if I was yesterday's trash? That wasn't fair. What happened between us, happened, and it wasn't my fault. So I needed to stop blaming myself.

One thing that I could blame myself for was for...Danny's death.

That was absolutely my fault.

And I swear, I think a piece of me died when she did. She was just that important and special to me. I would look at Danny and I swear, it was like she put the stars in the sky. I fell in love with her. I fell so hard, and then, I came crashing down, and the fall was even harder.

I would always feel guilty for never being completely honest, I could never have been completely honest with her, not like how she was with me. I could never tell her about my past and I had somewhat lied to her about it. I had told her I grew up an orphan, saying that I never met my parents because my mom had dropped me off when I was just a babe. I lied about my life to the one person I loved more than myself, more than anyone. I felt guilty as hell.

But Danny was always honest with me, always. And when she invited me to meet her parents, they took me in and they made feel like a part of their family, made me feel like I belonged again. It felt so good being with them. And then when Danny died, as if I needed to add on more guilt, I never went to the funeral, I disappeared out of their lives, as if I never existed. Her family tried to get in touch with me but...I-I ignored them, disappeared from their lives. I felt like I couldn't face them. I had a part to play in her death, I was wracked with guilt.

If only I had never met her...she'd probably still be alive today...

* * *

 

"Looks like you'll get to see the people you trained with to become a hound, once again," I hear Nico say and I look over to see him stirring his coffee. "We're going out today, it's our first day off and I need to get out, see people..." he muttered the last part mostly to himself but I still heard it.

My feelings for Nico...well up to this point they were completely nonexistent, I mean, the guy was a big douchebag. So yeah, they were absolutely gone. Although to be fair with the guy, he was kind of nice to me when we were solving that case at comic con, I mean, he _did_ buy me something to eat when I was starving, so I guess he had his good sides. Didn't mean he was nice to me...and it was only _once_ too! Douche...

Living with him was awkward, at best. And at worst...well let's just say I sometimes got the feeling that he wanted to kill me or see me dead...which for some reason I didn't fully understand. I swear sometimes when he talked to me, it was like he was talking to trash.

It was a talent; the way this guy could open his mouth and spew such condescending nonsense in the history of mankind. Hell, even when Nico would say anything, _anything,_ like a simple 'hello' I'm sure that it would sound as if he was greeting a pile of feces. That's how it was whenever he talked to me.

"Get ready, hurry up," I snapped out of my thoughts and looked over at him, glaring at me as he sipped his coffee.

Quickly getting up from the couch, I walked to my room and decided it was better not to piss him off on a day off and just...get ready. I picked out an outfit and quickly got in the shower.

I know I'm sounding like a pushover or something, but honestly, the less I have to deal with him the better for me.

...

Not thirty minutes later, I'm in the car with Nico as he drives us somewhere where supposedly we're going to meet up with his _'friends',_ honestly I'm still shocked anyone would actually _want_ to be his friend...he doesn't necessarily seem like a friendly person.

We soon get on the freeway and I stare out the window, hoping to find some sort of distraction so that I wouldn't have to be forced to make small talk (although by the looks of things it seems Nico prefers silence) and so that I wouldn't have to constantly be reminded that I was alone in a car with someone who hated me and it was beyond awkward.

So I looked out the window, watching all the other cars pass by us or us pass them by, watching the trees move in a blur, the clouds seemingly following us as we drove on. My mind couldn't help but wonder back into a memory, tugging at the back of my mind since my dream.

_"Percy! Come down and eat breakfast before it gets too late!"_

I heard my mom call me down from the kitchen, but honestly I was just too tired. I had stayed up the night before until four in the morning playing this new game that had just come out and today was the first day of junior year. Man, I was not looking forward to school starting again at all. I prayed to whatever powerful being up there to just smite me with an unusual sickness so that I could stay home for a few days and avoid as long as possible the responsibilities of schoolwork.

_"Percy!"_

Looks like that all powerful being just wanted to watch me suffer because mom was not letting up.

_"Don't make me go up there young man!"_

That did it.

"I'm up!" I shout back so that my mom wouldn't come up the stairs because God knows that she'd do it. She's got no fear.

I got up from bed and got ready for school, taking a quick shower and getting dressed, then grabbing my backpack so that I could have it ready for when I had to leave for school. I grab a red ball from my night stand and I make my way out into the hallway and towards the end of the stairs. I stop right before I have to go downstairs, right near the touch screen panel that was off to the side where an injection would pop out for every single member in the household.

For small infants and babies, they would have to be three and up for them to start taking the injections. Until then though, they would eat these small, chewy squares that would help them get used to repressing their emotions. When they were infants, parents would mix a small powder in with the baby milk.

I don't exactly remember how I even got the idea of stopping my injections but I knew that for some odd reason, I really wanted to try it. I mean, my parents had skipped their injections some mornings, so why couldn't I? I wanted to live life, even for a little while, off the injections. I remember hearing this story in school when I was a sophomore towards the end of the school year, and my teacher had told us a story about this one guy who had stopped taking his injections and he did terrible things.

All of this, of course happened before I was even born, the events that took place I mean, about the guy who stopped taking his injections. Anyway, my teacher had said that he stopped taking them back when he was real young, like when he was Tyson's age, or so my teacher said. I can't exactly remember the guy's name, it was hard to pronounce and my dyslexia was really acting up at that time, but anyway, this dude seemed to have gone crazy and started to kill people at random.

But here's the thing whenever he would kill someone, he would give hints about the person who would be his next target. And his next target would receive something from him but they never thought anything of it because the "gift" they would receive was normal and usual. The gift would only make sense until after the person was killed because wherever the killer got the present, like if it was from a store or a bakery or something, the victim's body would be found there. All mangled and messed up.

He had done the killings for seven months straight, with the Enforcers working day and night trying to catch this guy, but it seemed impossible. People had started to become paranoid walking home alone from anywhere and they were warned to be careful. They had named him 'The Giver' and they never caught him, never found out how he even looked like, this guy was good at hiding his face. No one had ever seen his face and the cameras had never picked it up either. To this day, no one has solved the case or even found out the identity of the killer. For all we know, he could still be out there.

Well, like I said, I was curious about living life without taking them but when I heard that story, and don't judge me, but when I heard that story, it had gotten me into the idea even more. Not to mention, my parents were doing it and they seemed fine without the injections, I thought I would be too. And it wasn't because of what he did but because he had left a typed note behind describing what it felt like to be off the injections since he was little. He had felt liberated, was the word he had used and I wanted to experience that too.

Not the killing, that freaked me the hell out but the feeling of not having my emotions, my moods, controlled or...toned down, I wanted to experience that.

It was my junior year, well, the beginning and I had tried it once before. The summer before school started, we were now in November, it had been two or three months since the last time that I didn't take my injection. I had done it with my little brother's teddy bear and was scared shitless, this time I was trying with my red ball. But I knew I wanted to feel what I felt on that day once more.

And so that morning, when I looked at the touchscreen panel, I, on impulse, put my red ball on the screen and let my ball take the injection.

My mind wanders off sometimes, aside from being dyslexic, I also have ADHD, so my mind tends to go off sometimes, the injection somewhat helped me control those aspects. So, my red ball takes the injection for me and for a split second, my heart rate goes up once more, thinking I am definitely getting caught this time because I'm thinking that what I did was commit a serious crime. I waited with bated breath for my mother and father to get a phone call, Anna notifying them that I did not take the injection. I expected the Enforcers to knock down the door of the house and take me away for not taking my injection. I waited for anything, _anything at all_ to happen.

Of course, none of that happens. It didn't happen the first time, why should it happen the second time?

Instead, my mother called me down once more before I heard her footsteps getting closer to the stairs and that got me moving. I sprinted down the steps and stopped right in front of my mom, who had her eyes wide with surprise.

"I'm up, see?" I smile cheekily at her.

"Goodness, Percy," my mom said a bit breathlessly, "you scared me."

"Sorry mom," I smile once more before kissing her cheek and stepping around her to get to the kitchen, "won't happen again."

Fingers snapped in front of my face and I blinked once before noticing the car had stopped moving.

"What are you? Deaf?" I heard Nico say, "I've been telling you to get moving for the past five minutes, what, did you go to La-La Land?"

Man, does this guy sound ever so condescending. My left eye twitches a bit and I breathe in slowly before breathing out.

"I'm sorry, my mind...went elsewhere..." I say, and I somewhat congratulate myself for sounding so calm and controlling my anger.

Anger was one of the emotions of which I experienced at full force while off my injections. It wasn't very pleasant, but then again, most of my life wasn't very pleasant.

When I was angry, or would get angry, it was explosive and untamed; blocking off sound and reason. I learned that it's hard to deal with someone who gets angry yet won't listen to reason, especially if they're stubborn, which is another trait of mine. So I tried, very hard to rein in my anger.

"Yes, I saw that, you had the most idiotic expression I've ever seen on anyone," Nico looked at me, his eyebrows furrowed and his lips tilted down in a frown, his nose was upturned and looked a bit snotty although, that could just be me... Nope, Nico was definitely snotty. "Let's go, they're probably waiting for us already." He said impatiently and got out of the car, walking at a brisk pace to the entrance of the...mall?

We had gone to the mall? I didn't even think Nico knew what a mall _was._

Yet here we were, walking inside a mall as if that were a normal thing to do. Which it actually was, I just never thought I'd be there with Mr. High and Mighty.

I quickly caught up to him and followed him as he made his way around the mall, walking to the food court where I guessed, we were to meet up with his _friends._

"Nico!" A girl shouted and she quickly ran up to him and almost tackled him to the floor. The girl that tackled him like a football player had mocha skin, with brilliant golden eyes and light brown curly hair. If I remember correctly, her name was Hazel.

"Hazel, you almost knocked me to the floor!" Nico shouted but he seemed to...was I imagining things? He was _smiling. Chuckling. Actually looking normal and happy._

Dear Lord, I must have been dreaming. I was dreaming. That was the only explanation to what I was seeing. And I think I could have fooled myself into thinking this was a dream if it wasn't for the fact that Piper came running and tried to hug me by my waist. Except since I wasn't paying attention, I didn't have time to react and plant my feet firmly for the attack coming my way and so we went straight to the floor. Which, by the way, hurt like a motherf-

"Percy!" She squealed as she hugged me so hard, I thought she was going to squeeze my lungs out of my chest.

"H-hey Piper..." I managed to wheeze out and she quickly loosened her grip.

"Haha, well because _someone_ wasn't paying attention, we both went down to the floor," Piper teased me as she got up off me and gave me her hand to help me up.

"You frickin' tackled me!"

"You should have been paying attention," she stuck out her tongue at me.

"Well...you," I sputtered, trying think of something to blame her with.

"Oh shut it nuts for brains, you know I'm right," Piper punched my arm playfully.

"I missed you Pipes," I smiled before hugging her tight.

"Missed you too, dude, I haven't seen you for what feels like ten years," Piper giggled. As I looked around, I noticed all eyes were trained on me and Piper. And I could feel someone burning holes into my skull. I looked around and made eye contact with Nico, who was nothing but a scowling mess. He soon turned around and made conversation with Hazel and a blond guy who I remember was with Rose the day we got tested and sent to John's, his name was Will.

"Finally, a day off," Luke came up to me and bumped shoulders with me.

"I know right, feels good doesn't it?" I ask him.

"What cases have you guys been working on?" I hear a voice say behind me and I turn around to see Adam smirk at me before handing me a can of soda.

"Me and Luke have been tag-teaming these last couple of cases," I answer, accepting the can of soda, "how's it been man? What have you been up to?"

"Eh, working a few minor cases," Adam shrugged his shoulders, "but the real gossip around work is that you, Nico, Luke and Rose have been cracking down on some hard ass cases, the kind that are almost impossible to solve...or at least looks that way. You've been getting lucky Perce."

"Wanna trade? I'd be happy to give you one of those hard cases any day," I snorted.

"Oh come on Percy, you and Luke are the buzz around the AECPC," Beth Copeland joined in, she was a woman with blonde hair and light brown eyes. Her skin was fair and she had a slim body, that was very fit, she was the hound of Octavian Castellan, Luke's younger brother.

"Yeah, tell us what happened on those cases you guys worked on," John Mitchell clapped Percy and Luke on their shoulders, he was five feet and eleven inches, blond and blue eyes all the way, with freckles dusting his face. He was partners with Hazel, the girl who had hugged Nico.

"John, my man," I said, shaking my head, a small smirk already making its way on my face.

"Yeah, yeah, enough with the pleasantries, let's get to the action, the story," Joanna, the partner of Frank Zhang, cut in; a curvy woman with brown chestnut hair, really tan skin and warm, apple green eyes, resting her hand on Noah's (partners with Mike Collins) shoulder and smirking my way.

"Let Luke tell you-" I began only to get cut off.

"Oh hell no Jackson, we're both telling this "story" or else no one's gonna hear it." Luke threatened.

"Okay guys, let's not get too excited here," Apollo cut in.

"Apollo!" I went over to give the blond a bear hug, I had actually missed him.

"And of course, you forgot all about the amazing, Super Sized McShizzle," Leo's voice cut in.

"No way dude, how could I forget the Super...whatever..."

"You suck Percy," Leo deadpanned when I couldn't say his nickname.

"Anyway shitheads, we wanna hear about the cases," John says excitedly.

"Calm down blondie," Luke rolls his eyes.

"Look who's talking!" John shouts.

"Wanna hear the details or not?" Luke asks, and then sits down a nearby table. "So here's how the first case goes..."

Everyone sat down or laid themselves around these two big round tables. Amber, Mason, Clarisse, Silena, Piper, Adam; everyone was here. I smiled a bit because I hadn't realized how much I had missed them all. I was too busy working on those cases and whenever I got home, I was dead tired, I didn't think about anything or anyone else.

I know Amber and Adam lived in the same apartment complex as me but I had never seen them because of our different work schedules.

"So we go to the factory right, thinking we just gotta poke our noses in, question people, take in mind, it's also mine and Percy's first day on the job, we had no clue what we were even gonna do." Luke continued telling them the story. I listened on as much as I could even though I lived through them. "Rose is teaching us what to do and say..."

_"Percy, I honestly can't see myself with anyone but you..."_

"Do you really mean that?" I look over to Ben, perched on the table next to mine, lunch is close to ending, me and Ben had decided to have it in one of our favorite teacher's classroom. His name was Mr. Brunner, and he taught Latin, well Greek Mythology but on occasion, Latin as well. It was actually a surprise that that was even allowed but then again, they were the watered down lessons.

"Yeah, why wouldn't I?" Ben smiles at me, one of his eyebrows is raised and he's got this somewhat doe-eyed expression. I can honestly believe what he's telling me, why would I ever have reason to doubt?

"I don't know, I just...seem a bit different than the usual guys you're probably used to dating..." I mumble, mostly to myself than to him but he hears it anyway.

"I don't have a type," he scoffs.

"Yes you do, and they're somewhat of the bad boy type and honestly, I'm not a bad boy..."

At the time, I had honestly thought that. I think it was because I was so sheltered by my parents and by the injections and I think also because of Attica, that I just never let my wild side take over.

"You've gotten into trouble plenty of times!" Ben smacked my shoulder playfully.

"That was all just extremely bad luck!"

Ben rolls his eyes at me, "well whatever, you being or not being a bad boy doesn't mean anything to me, it won't make me like you any less, I like you just the way you are." He reached over and grabbed my hand, "please believe me when I say that." His smile was genuine and sweet, I couldn't help but smile back. "So get that nonsense out of your head, okay?"

"Okay." I grinned.

"Good." He leaned over slightly as I leaned forward and kissed me on the lips gently.

At that time, I had sincerely thought that what he told me, about not being able to see himself with anyone but me, was true. I thought we were going to be together for a very long time, maybe even forever. Which had been pretty stupid of me considering we were still in high school and this could be considered puppy love, but I had high hopes.

"Next thing I know, they're heads come flying off." Luke's voice brings me back to the present and I realized my mind had drifted off again. "It completely caught me and Rose off guard, freaked me out too. Anyway, the autopsy said that there was this device attached from their necks to their heads and someone had control over them." Luke shook his head, his blond hair moving from side to side due to the action.

"Percy, you haven't even talked throughout the whole time, Luke's been the only one talking," Amber says to me.

I look up at her and give her a small smile, "uh sorry, I just, kind of got lost in my thoughts."

"Don't hurt yourself Perce," Leo joked and I threw him a glare. He put his hands up, surrendering, "heh, j-just kidding."

I looked over to Nico and saw him talking and even, dare I say, smiling at something (Reyna? Was that her name?) said, which took me by surprise seeing at how normal he was acting. If I didn't know him any better, I would've thought it's pretty easy for him to make friends since he seems so nice. Well at least with them, anyway. Before I could look away, Nico looked up and we made eye contact for a brief moment, in that brief moment something within me stirred.

Staring into those dark eyes of his that seemed so endless, I was a bit-

And it went away as soon as I saw him scowl at me.

I rolled my eyes at that. I can't believe I was actually beginning to _feel something_ once again. _No,_ I told myself, _what you're feeling is horny. You are just horny and nothing else and it doesn't help that the bastard is kind of attractive either._ I sulked, crossing my arms in front of my chest, I turned away from him and decided to look straight ahead of me. Which was a mistake because Piper saw the whole thing and she was giving me this look, eyebrow raised as if to say, _he still hates you?_

I shook my head at her and she snorted, rolling her eyes at me. Then she moved towards me, scraping her chair along the floor until she was sitting in front of me.

"Hey there Mr. Grumpy Pants," she teased.

"Ha ha," I rolled my eyes at her.

"I know right, I'm pretty funny."

"Yeah, hilarious," I smirked at her.

"So, how's it going with...Mr. Wonderful over there?" At that I laughed.

"He hates my guts," I snorted in derision. "He hates my guts and I don't know why, but enough about me, how have you been? How's it like with your Enforcer?"

At that, Piper turned a bit pink in the cheeks, "u-uh, not much you know, I got to know my Enforcer, her name's Annabeth Chase. It's nice l-living with her, she's pretty cool. Nothing out of the ordinary has happened so far and she seems pretty nice. Yeah, everything is pretty okay, more than okay I guess. I mean, I could have been paired up with someone who hated my guts-" her eyes popped wide open when she said that and soon took on this apologetic look when she looked over at me, "uh, I mean, was mean to me- nevermind. Forget what I said." She started shaking her head.

"Piper you're rambling, take a breather," I stopped her from talking as she took a deep breath, "for a second there I thought you were gonna pass out because you just kept on talking."

She glared at me, "shut up."

I smirked her way, "oh but you don't like it when I tease you huh?"

"Oh, shut up," she rolled her eyes.

"So um, can we talk about how you talked and wouldn't stop talking?" I asked her, and saw her face turn bright red. "I'm gonna take that as a no then."

Piper was about to say something when suddenly, our wristbands went off. I looked down at mine and saw that I needed to report to the AECPC immediately.

"You too?" Piper asked me while I looked around for Nico, who was making his way towards me. "Yeah," I answer her, "what, who else got paged?"

"Looks like everyone here. I'll see you there, bye." Piper gives me a quick hug once more before catching up to the blonde girl, named Annabeth Chase, who was waiting for her at the edge of the escalator.

"Yeah...see ya," I say softly before turning to my _partner._

"Let's go," he grunts before pushing past me and walking towards the exit.

* * *

 

"Now, I will select two Enforcers and their partners for this assignment, as you all know by now, it is at this all-boys prep school where some of the students have gone missing and the school is taking a lot of heat from the parents of the missing students." The woman speaking to us, who is apparently named Minerva (the whole time she was talking to us, her expression looked cold and somewhat detached), fills us in. "The two Enforcers assigned to this case are Enforcer Nico and Enforcer Annabeth, and your partners are going with you, of course, to help out. Report back to me as soon as you are done. And make sure that you get those kids back home safely. We have to try our best."

With that, Minerva turned around and was making her way out when I saw her getting stopped by Rose. Minerva looked down at Rose and I saw her cold look diminish. Minerva had this almost motherly look about her while talking with Rose, which was a bit creepy because she honestly gave me the heebie jeebies. Rose was talking to Minerva and I honestly wished I could have heard what they were saying...but I didn't get the chance because next thing I knew, Nico was pulling me aside.

"Pay attention," he scowled at me.

"Sorry," I mumbled, rolling my eyes at him, I looked over at Piper who raised a single eyebrow in question but I shook my head minutely, hoping to tell her later.

"Now then," Annabeth started talking, "we know that a few of the students at this all-boy prep school have gone missing without a trace, or so it seems...and it's always at night that it seems they go missing, since the next morning when called in to class they're not present. Upon further investigation, once the teacher has gone to the student's Room Advisor, who then checks up on the student they find that the student is not in their room. They go out searching for said student until they have to involve the security they placed around the school, so far this is the first time they bring it to our attention..."

"What could that..." Piper fumbled for the right thing to say, "I mean, how could that...be?"

"Not sure," Annabeth answered, "I just know that they waited a bit too long before contacting us, they should have done that when the first student went missing for 24 hours. This school has curfew and it is nearly impossible to sneak out or so other students have said, not to mention they have an alarm system and a few guards before even entering the school and like I said, security." The blonde looked to Nico, "it just doesn't make any sense..."

"Let's go figure it out," Nico quirked an eyebrow at the blonde who nodded her head.

With that, Piper and Annabeth turned around and said they were going to get their things ready. I then assumed Nico and I would be getting our things ready to leave as well. "C'mon hound, let's go get ready for this mission." He said, walking at a brisk pace and leaving me to catch up.

As we drove to Salisbury School for Boys, (I know right, sounds a bit funny, huh?) Nico informed me more on what was going on. As said before, the boys had begun disappearing out of nowhere and they weren't able to find the missing students. No trace of any bodies either were found and there were no leads as to who was even responsible for this.

"Looks like we have to wait and see what happens when we get there..." Nico said as he looked through the file once more, "if we can talk to the students, we can maybe get some insight as to who could be doing this. It might a person disguised as a teacher..." he trailed off after that, flipping through some more papers.

We drove in silence after that, him reading the papers on the files, me focusing on the road ahead. It was silent but for the first time, it wasn't awkward, most likely because we were both preoccupied.

When we got to the school or at least the entrance, Annabeth called us through Nico's wristband.

"Hello?" Nico answered.

_"Hey, so I just contacted the school to let them know we're on our way, there's going to be a long, and I mean really long road that leads to the school, you should come across it on the first right you see."_ Annabeth informed us, right as she told us that, we saw the road dividing into the right and the other one going straight.

"Okay, we just made the turn." Nico answered her.

_"Good, the school is enormous, they have woods surrounding the whole school..."_

"Which just makes our job all the more difficult," Nico exasperated.

_"Either way, you're going to come up to a guard, the school told me, and they've let the guard know we're from the AECPC. Once we get to the entrance of the school we will be meeting with the headmaster."_

"Okay, thanks for the heads up," Nico said before ending the call.

I kept on driving down the long dirt road, passing by so many trees, you could barely see through them at all. They zipped by as I continued to drive straight ahead. My mind wondered whether or not we would find the missing students and where could they have gone. How could they even escape if there were alarm systems about this whole place not to mention, cameras, plus guards. I mean the school was on lock down all the time, sort of. And if they did leave the school, how come they didn't just go home and be with their family?

We kept on driving for twenty minutes until we came across the security guard to let us in the school. He stopped us at the entrance and asked to see our ID's, which we gave and told us Annabeth and Piper had already come through. Soon enough the gate opened up and I continued to drive down the dirt road. The trees started to become less dense and I could actually see through them the closer we got to the school.

There seemed to be a path through the woods they had here. Like as if some of the students hiked through here just to hang out. There were a few squirrels running around, scampering through the branches and on the ground. I saw birds, heard them twittering and flying off across the sky.

Soon enough, we saw the top of the school looming over us as we got closer to the entrance. The school was square-ish, with dark red and brown bricks, the windows were huge, at least the ones in front. There were a few things hung up on the windows, a few projects that some of the students did and decorations from what I saw.

The road started to become more even, eventually becoming pavement and pretty soon we started to see less and less trees, and more sidewalks and benches here and there.

We came into the parking lot of the school, which was pretty empty except for a few cars who, if I were to guess, belonged to the teachers of the school. I spotted Annabeth's car right away, I made my way towards the empty space next to her car and parked. Annabeth and Piper each got out of the car and waited for me and Nico to get out as well.

Once I got out of the car, Annabeth looked over to me briefly before bringing her attention to Nico, "you ready?" She asked him, to which she received a nod of the head as an answer. "Good."

She started to make her way to the entrance of the school, Piper in tow and Nico following behind. I looked over the school before following behind the three. I felt a shiver go down my spine, a sort of feeling that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand just for a second. I shook my body to be rid of it and focused on our case.

When we got through the main doors of the school, which by the way was absolutely huge, we were stopped by another guard.

"Excuse me," he spoke to us, "are you the Enforcers?"

"Yes," Annabeth answered for us, showing her ID to the guard, "we have a meeting with the headmaster of the school."

"I figured, please follow me." He nodded his head once he saw her ID, turned around and walked down the hall before turning right, with the four of us following behind.

As we walked through the hallways, I saw so many doors leading to the classrooms of the school, some were open while others were closed. I was distracted by my surroundings and bumped in to Piper who looked back at me, her eyebrows furrowing.

"Hey, are you okay?" She asked me.

"Yeah, fine," I nodded my head, "just...got distracted."

"As per usual," came the snarky remark from my partner as he passed by us. I glared at his back before rolling my eyes and deciding it'd be best to let it go.

"Nico, we're here to do a job, no snide comments please," Annabeth huffed slightly, putting a strand of hair behind her ear as she looked at Nico, who turned up his nose and looked away, she sighed slightly before shaking her head.

"And here we are," the guard spoke up, getting back our attention. He stood before a door and knocked twice on it before a muffled voice from the other end said "come in." Opening the door, the guard let us step inside before leaving and closing the door.

"Ah, the Enforcers have arrived," the headmaster said, who was a skinny, pale looking man with a thick, gray moustache under a large nose, "thank you, so, so much for coming out here, especially on such short notice. I am sure there are plenty of cases to be worked on and well, we reported this far too late, it's a miracle that the four of you came here." He rambled. "Why, just the other day on the news, I saw those fires happening and-and well, I'm sure you al-"

_Fires...?_

I looked over to Piper to question her about it, but she wasn't paying attention to me.

"Headmaster Jefferson," Nico stopped the poor guy from talking his mouth off without taking in a breather, "if you would please recount the events that have occurred in your school for us once more, that would be great."

"Oh! Oh, yes of course, I ramble, I'm sorry but I really do ramble, it's a habit I suppose, now uh, yes, the events that happened over the last couple of days..."

_"These last couple of days have been amazing James..."_

I look over to my beautiful girlfriend, with bubblegum pink hair and warm brown eyes.

She smiles at me, her nose scrunching up in the process but I find the action to be the cutest thing I've ever witnessed in my entire life. "I have a feeling we're going to be together forever."

My heart beats fast, my hand runs its fingers through her hair and I can feel my eyes crinkle and my mouth form into a smile, "I have that same feeling too."

Danny bites her bottom lip, showing off her gapped teeth which I love so very much before smiling widely, "I love you, James, with all of my heart."

_"And I love you Danny."_

"The parents have gone mad-"

I shake my head, now is not the time to be daydreaming. Why am I always doing this?

"-wanting to find their missing children, barging on campus, storming into my office demanding I find their kids and who could blame them?!" Headmaster Jefferson continued. "Oh, I blame myself, I am beyond incompetent, I should resign! I should be fired!" He yelled. "How could I let this happen...?" He whispered, mostly to himself but we heard him. The poor guy was beating himself up over this.

"Don't worry Headmaster Jefferson," I found myself speaking up, "we will do our best to catch whoever is responsible for this, we will catch them." As soon as the words come out of my mouth, Annabeth, Nico and Piper all turned to look at me. Nico glared at me before rolling his eyes and looking away. Annabeth just shook her head and put her hand on her forehead. Piper just looked at me with a worried expression.

"Oh! Thank you so much, I just knew you would find the missing students!" The headmaster exclaimed. "We've been so worried..."

"In total," Annabeth began, "there are five missing students. They've been missing for a month already, am I correct?" She looked toward the headmaster.

"Yes."

"And the last student missing was pretty recent, it was about a week ago that he went missing?"

"Yes." Headmaster Jefferson answered the blonde.

"Very well, we'll be asking a few questions to the teachers of the missing students and to their close friends and roommates." Annabeth wrote down on her notebook a few lines. "May we have two separate rooms to ourselves? We'll be splitting the workload."

"Oh, yes, I can set you up with two class rooms." Headmaster Jefferson made his way to another door in his office. Once he opened the door, we got a look outside where it looked like a typical main office in a school. He headed over to a desk where a secretary was typing away at a computer and he spoke to her. He asked the secretary for two sheets of paper, which she handed to him. Headmaster Jefferson came back into his office and smiled at us. "This," he started, holding up the two sheets of paper he went to get, "is a map of the school, these two rooms here are available for use. Please, allow me to ask a teacher to help guide you for today."

He reached for his phone and asked his secretary to send him a teacher who was free and could guide us. We waited for ten minutes before there was a knock on his office door. "Come in," headmaster Jefferson spoke.

"Headmaster," a voice spoke, "you asked for me."

For some reason, the voice sounded, faintly familiar. I turned around to see who it was and I felt my blood freeze. Standing there was a face I thought I'd never see again, only in my dreams. He still had his shaggy, curly, light brown hair and those playful brown eyes, except his hair seemed a bit shorter now, more maintained; and his eyes were still playful but lost their mischievous presence. It was Ben.

He looked at everyone in the room before his eyes landed on me. He gasped, his hand coming up to his mouth as his eyes widened, "P-Percy?" Everyone else turned to look at me.

* * *

 

"Mr. Smith, if you could please show the Enforcers the way around most parts of the school and to the empty rooms they will be using to question the students and some of the teachers, please?" Headmaster Jefferson was trying his best to disperse the tension that was in the room and I silently thanked him for it, because Nico was looking at me like he was ready to kill me.

"Y-yes, Headmaster Jefferson," Ben said, a bit too loudly and a bit too quickly. A pink blush started to tint his face and he looked at me briefly before turning away. "Please, follow me." He said, in a more composed voice.

He walked out of the office, with the rest of us following him out into the hall.

"So," Piper whispered lowly to me, walking beside me as Annabeth and Nico walked in front of us. "How exactly do you two know each other?"

"We um...we uh, dated in high school..." I answered back, trying my best to whisper. Unfortunately for me, and trust me, I am going to have a series of unfortunate events, someone heard me. When I looked up, it was to bright gray eyes, full of intellect. Annabeth looked me over once more, nothing in her face or body giving away her thoughts before looking straight ahead.

"These are the lab rooms that the science teachers use from time to time, but they've decided to not use two of the four rooms we have here. You'll use them in the meantime," Ben explained, opening the door to one of the rooms. "One pair can use this one, the other pair can use the room across the hall." He pointed to a door adjacent to the room we were about to enter.

"Who will be working where?" Ben asked, looking directly to Nico and Annabeth.

"We will be switching partners," Annabeth answered.

"For the first half," Nico continued where Annabeth left off, "I will be with Piper and the hou-"

"Ahem!" Annabeth interrupted, and I couldn't help getting rid of the the scowl from forming on my face quick enough before Nico looked my way and smirked, clearly liking the fact that he got a rise out of me. "As my partner was saying, first Nico and Piper will be working together while Percy and I work together in this room." She gestured to the room itself with her hands. "The second half it will be Piper and I in this room, and Nico and Percy in the room across.

"Oh, okay," Ben blinked briefly, not totally understanding why we were switching at all, "uh, any questions?"

"W-where's the restroom? Can you show me where it is? I need to use it." I suddenly opened my mouth, and promptly shut it once I saw the look Nico gave me.

"Right, the restroom, I can show you!" Ben responded a bit too quickly, and from the corner of my eye I saw Nico fuming, he looked about ready to say something. God, what did I get myself into? Why did I have to open my big mouth?

"I need to use the restroom as well," Piper spoke up before Nico even got the chance to speak.

"Oh," Ben looked to her, a bit defeated, "r...right, I can show you." He changed the expression on his face, and turned towards me and Piper, "follow me."

"Wait," Nico said, before we could even move, "you _two_ are _hounds_ you can't just go off alone. We need to accompany you." The look on his face made it clear he just wanted to irritate me, well, us.

"It's okay Nico," Annabeth answered, smirking when he turned a look of betrayal to her, "let them go alone, we're working a case anyway, where would they run off to? And so what? So they can get into further trouble."

"But..." Nico started, not really knowing where to go from there.

"You can all go on," Annabeth looked to us, amusement evident in her gray eyes. "Let's work on organizing which group of students will go to who," she turned to Nico, and went over to sit down at a lab table.

"Fine," Nico grumbled, giving up.

As we started to leave, I silently thanked Annabeth in my mind. I had never spoken to her in my life but goddamn, was she already at the top of the list for the best Enforcer I've ever met.

As we made our way down the hall, Piper stopped short and turned to me and Ben, "Ben, could you direct me to the girls' restrooms?"

"I thought you wanted me to show you?" Ben answered, confusion lacing his voice.

"No, just point it out to me, I only spoke up because it looked like Percy's boss was gonna have a fit if it was gonna be just you two going...especially since...you wanna talk in private with Percy, right?" She turned her kaleidoscope eyes on me, filling with mirth before looking back at Ben. "Or am I right? Hm?"

"Y-yes." Ben said nervously.

"Well there you have it, a solution to what could have been a problem, now just point the way and I'll be off."

"You take a right and it's past two classroom doors on the left side." Ben pointed down a hall.

"Thank you, okay, I'll be off," she started to walk before turning around to me, "Percy, don't take too long or else they will get suspicious."

"I got it." I answered and soon enough, it was me and Ben in the hall, alone.

We were silent for what seemed like forever, the silence stretching on and creating an awkward and tense atmosphere.

"Percy..." finally, Ben spoke but it seemed like he didn't know what else to say, or where to go from there. He looked at me, his warm brown eyes on mine and I think, finally coming to the conclusion that I wasn't the same person I used to be. "You're a...h-hound..." he struggled with the word. "Y-you m-murdered your p...p...par- I can't even say it!"

"I didn't murder my family," I whispered lowly.

Ben stared at me for just a second before he hugged me tightly, "oh! I just knew it! Wh-when I heard it and saw it on the news...I couldn't believe it, I refused to believe it!" He whispered fiercely into my chest, and I was in too much a shock to do much but loosely wrap my arms around him. When was the last time I held someone like this? Since after Danny? I can't remember because it never happened since then...

Soon enough Ben backed away from me, his cheeks turning a bit pinkish, "I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hug you so suddenly and out of nowhere too..."

"It's okay..."

"No, it's not, because...because I..." he turned away from me, "because...I chea-"

"That's in the past now," I interrupt him before he can continue. "We...should head back-"

"Piper's not back yet," Ben pointed out. "I just wanted to say... I am so, so sorry for what I did..."

"It's in the past Ben." I tried to make it clear that I didn't want to talk about this but he shook his head.

"I know that," he looked straight into my eyes, "but I just wanted to say sorry, and really mean it. I don't care if you forgive me or not, I'm just...apologizing because what I did was wrong, and I need you to know that I learned from my mistake. I don't need you to forgive, although that'd be nice, I need you to know that I know what I did was wrong and that I regret it."

I was stunned into silence, I never thought I would ever see Ben again, nor think that I'd hear him say he was wrong for what he did to me years ago. I didn't know what to do, what to say...

"Ben..." I started.

"I'm back, did you guys have your little...talk?" Piper came up to us, looking at the both of us, we both looked anywhere but at her, before turning to me, "let me guess, I interrupted right?"

"Well..." I started, "we talked about most things..."

"Well we need to go back, we've been gone for too long."

"Right," Ben looked at her before turning to me and smiling, "I'll take you guys back."

...

When we got back to the lab room, Annabeth and Nico looked up from what they were working on.

"Nice of you two to join us," Annabeth said, jokingly.

"Piper, let's go to the room across the hall, Annabeth and I figured out what we need to do." Nico started to gather up his things.

"Which is?" I asked, looking at the both of them.

Nico rolled his eyes at me and ignored my question, thankfully, Annabeth answered me.

"The plan is that you and me are going to be questioning a number of students and teachers, the friends of all of the victims, and Nico and Piper will take the other half, then we switch partners. Based on the information we've gathered, Nico and I will see what we need to do next."

"Oh, okay," I nodded my head, it sounded like a simple plan seeing as how we didn't exactly have all of the information and some of the information we _did_ have was useless.

"Great," Annabeth started, "so Percy, come over here, I'll fill you in some more."

"Let's go Piper," Nico called, already at the door, he over looked his shoulder to where Piper was standing next to Ben.

"I guess I'll...leave you guys..." Ben waved weakly, stalling his leave.

"Wait," I said impulsively, "we might need Ben to stick...around..."

"And why _exactly_ do you need Ben, you-"

"We might need Ben to help us out just a bit," Annabeth interrupted, smiling at Nico who was glaring at her, "you never know."

"Right, so I'll check with you both from time to time." Ben smiled at them before looking over at me.

"Fine." Nico barked out before stomping out of the room.

"I'll just go...follow him then." Piper turned to leave, Ben in tow, and waved goodbye to Annabeth and me, then walked out of the room.

"So, let's get started," Annabeth looked to me and smirked my way. She wasn't overtly friendly, but I'd take Annabeth over Nico any day. She at least seemed more reasonable.

"Right," I answered her and went to go sit by her.

"Nico and I split the amount of students that were friends with the ones who are missing right now, and the teachers evenly between the four of us. You and I will be interrogating the students and teachers all morning and maybe even all afternoon. Depending on if we have anything we can move on to plan a course of action, understand?"

"Yeah."

"Good," Annabeth cracked her hands, "then let's get started."

* * *

 

"So you never saw Thomas acting strange at all in the days leading up to his disappearance?" I found myself asking, once more, the twentieth student me and Annabeth were interrogating.

"No," Manny, that was his name, answered, "Thomas was mostly focused on the upcoming soccer game between Lancaster School For Boys. Thomas was the first freshman to pass JV soccer and go straight into varsity, earning a spot that was meant to be for one of the seniors. But because one of the seniors was acting up, he lost that position, besides, he was transferring schools anyways. His parents thought a more strict school would correct his behavior. He left before he even found out Thomas was taking his spot."

"So Thomas, in the following days would be seen practicing on the soccer field?" Annabeth asked.

"Yeah, whenever he got the chance Thomas was mostly training for the upcoming game, he wanted to make Coach proud. Even if he had already practiced with the team after classes, Thomas would sometimes go off on his own and train. Soccer was something Thomas could really focus on."

"And that's all Thomas ever did? He never hung out with his friends? Took a break from soccer?" I asked him.

"Yeah, sure he did, but soccer was the one thing that was mostly taking up his time. He practiced mostly with Vincent and Johnny," he answered, "they were also on the soccer team, Vincent was a junior and Johnny was a senior. Those three were pretty popular around here, which is why everyone was really sad when they went left..."

"Vincent and Johnny were on the soccer team with Thomas?" Annabeth asked, without looking up from her notebook, where she was currently writing something down.

"Yeah, they became really good friends with Thomas after he joined the soccer team. In fact, Thomas' popularity rose up the more he hung out with those two, plus Mark and Derek, they were two seniors who were extremely popular, along with Jack and Jake."

"All of these guys were all friends with each other and hung out regularly?" I questioned.

"Yeah, they all hung out and were all pretty popular, every guy here wanted to be friends with them..."

"You said _wanted,_ what does no one want to be friends with the popular guys anymore?" Annabeth inquired.

"Well...a bit after Mark disappeared, Derek was going crazy trying to find him and asked the headmaster many times to call Mark's parents and the Enforcers...the headmaster thought it was just another one of Mark's schemes, he used to run away a lot, dragging Johnny and Vincent along with him sometimes, so Headmaster Jefferson let it go and told Derek Mark would be back." Manny kept informing us more and more, "eventually Derek got fed up and went to go look for Mark himself and ended up leaving the school one night, or so that's what everyone thinks. No one knows for sure what happened to Derek, all we know is that Mark was his childhood best friend, he was Derek's brother and Derek would do anything to get him back."

"So Derek one night up and left? Just like that? Without even alerting the guards or anyone?" I asked him.

"That's the thing, no one knows for sure, we all assume that he went to go look for Mark but no one really knows what happened to Derek..." he looked down at the table, his hands balling into fists, "Vincent was next to disappear after Mark and Derek, but again Headmaster Jefferson thought that he went to join Derek in looking for Mark. He thought there wasn't any real danger..."

"He should be fired," I spoke fiercely, "putting the lives of children in danger...he didn't do anything to look for them!"

"Percy, calm down, right now we need to think with a calm mind," Annabeth put her hand on my shoulder and tried to relax me.

"Okay," I said, giving in and breathing out slowly, trying to shake off the anger I felt.

"Go on," Annabeth gestured to Manny.

"After Vincent it was Johnny and yet the headmaster still hadn't done anything. More teachers were beginning to worry about the four missing students and decided to go behind the headmaster's back and call the parents of the missing children. The day before some of the teachers of the school resolved to call the parents, Thomas went missing. That was the last straw I think."

"What do you mean?" Annabeth asked him.

"See, even though Thomas was popular and friends with Mark, Derek, Vincent and Johnny, those four were always the ones getting in trouble. Thomas tried his best to stay out of it though. Those four were still friends with Thomas and they understood that he didn't want to get in trouble, and when he went missing the headmaster finally knew that this wasn't being done on purpose, those guys really did go missing."

"You keep mentioning only those five that went missing," I start, turning to Manny, "but you also mentioned that Jack and Jake were popular yet, never once mentioned if they were friends with the five or not, nor did you ever say anything about them."

"That's because those two are popular in a different sort of way, Jake is sort of the troublemaker, but right now he's on thin ice so he's held back, he was really good friends with the other five but he mostly hung out with a different group, Jack is popular because he's gifted, or so the people here call him that. He's crazy smart, so they say and his family are huge donators to the school. He gets treated in a special way..."

Annabeth looked at me and then looked back at the student, "thank you for your time Manny, I think we've got everything we need."

"Yeah, no problem, I can go back to class right?" He asked us.

"Yes, you can," Annabeth answered.

"Thanks," he said before leaving the lab room.

"Interesting things we were told by Manny..." Annabeth muttered, she then turned to me, "let's get Nico and Piper and let's have a little chat with Jack."

"So it seems like you guys got lucky," Nico said as all four of us walked down the hallway to where Ben pointed out where Jack's dorm room was located.

I noticed that Ben didn't very much seem too keen on Jack and it had me wondering why. When I asked him about it, Ben just told me that not everyone looks up to Jack like the rest of the students and even some of the teachers tried their best not to be too biased with him.

"Yeah well all it takes is just the right person to say the right things," Annabeth looked Nico's way and smirked at him which in turn made him grin.

When we got to the singular dorm room that belonged to Jack, Piper knocked on his door. As we waited for him to open up, I looked over at Nico for one second before realizing what I was doing and looked away. The door opened slowly to reveal a boy with straight black hair, reaching down his neck, he was wearing the standard uniform of the school, although it seemed he had taken the liberty to make himself comfortable. His black tie was loose around his white button-up, his dark navy jack couldn't be seen from where we were standing and his dark navy pants looked ruffled.

"Can I help you?" He asked us, while adjusting his glasses.

"Hello," Annabeth began, "as you must know, we are the Enforcers investigating your missing school mates, would you mind if we came in and asked you a few questions?"

Jack hesitated answering, he looked at each of us and seemed indecisive of whether or not to let us in, finally he made up his mind. With a small huff, he opened his door wider and let us come through without even uttering a word.

"Thank you," Piper smiled at him, trying her best to put him at ease while Annabeth's gray and calculating eyes regarded him briefly before looking around his room.

"So how can I help?" He asked, ignoring Piper completely and looking at Annabeth. I looked over at the blonde who was next to Nico; he was glaring at Jack in the same way he would sometimes glare at me.

"We'd like to ask you some questions-" Annabeth started.

"Yes, you've already said that. What are they?" Jack interrupted her, he sounded impatient.

"Sit down. _Now_." Nico spoke sternly.

Jack stared at him briefly before having a seat in his chair in front of his desk where I could see he seemed to be working on homework.

"We are going to ask you some questions and you're gonnaanswer them, understand, Jack? Or is that a bit _too_ hard?" Nico stalked over to him before standing right in front of him. Nico had squared his shoulders and was standing up straighter with his head held high.

"I can understand just fine." Jack looked up at Nico, glaring at him.

Okay, even if I did hate the stupid bastard, I had to give him props when props were due. It was clear he was done taking shit from this snot-nosed brat.

" _Good boy,_ " Nico said sarcastically, "now then Annabeth, ask him what you want."

"Thank you Nico," the blonde smirked and shook her head as she made her way to Jack. "It's just a few questions Jack and then we're done, no need to be so _defensive._ We'll be out of your hair the sooner you comply with us."

"Can we just get this over with already?" He asked, sounding a bit bored.

"Were you good friends with the missing students?" Annabeth ignored what he said before.

"I knew of them, we would nod at each other if we were passing the other in the hallway, but I wouldn't be quick to call them my best buddies at all."

"So who are your _best buddies_ then if not them?" Nico asked, glaring at Jack with the fire of a thousand suns backed behind his eyes.

"I don't necessarily have any friends, I have a posse but that's it."

"And why don't you have any friends?" I began, "is it because you're such a stuck up, snotty brat? Or maybe it's because you're a shut in who would rather stay inside his room all day than have actual human interaction?"

"Whatever gave you that idea?" He asked, scowling at me.

"Considering the state of your room, I'd say if you're not in class or in the library, I'm just gonna guess. you could be found here." I looked around his room. "Your 'posse' are merely made up of the few people you can stand to be around, who seem to _idolize_ you only because your parents are such big contributors of the school and they're renowned surgeons and you're just _the smartest person_ in this whole school..."

"What exactly does that have to do wi-"

"Everyone here seems to want to share the spotlight with you. Because your teachers, well most of them, let you off the hook if you misbehave; which you don't, because it seems like you can do whatever you want...people don't actually want to be around you. They only think they do and so they pretend to like you or maybe they do like you but they only like the image they have in their minds of you. And you're bitter about that," I remark, "and because of that you're angry and you can't stand anyone so you shut yourself in your room."

Jack glowered my way but that didn't phase me, I've seen worse, like Nico's for example. Who was now staring my way with something akin to respect.

"Okay what's the point in all this?" Jack asked me, "you know what I don't have to deal with all of this."

"And why are you so sure of that?" Annabeth asked.

"I could tell headmaster Jefferson about this, he'll have you all kicked out for bullying me!" Jack stomped his foot.

"Bullying you? We're merely doing our job which is to look for the missing students," Annabeth informed him.

"Whatever, I don't have time to deal with nonsense, I have to study. I'm the son of renowned surgeons, I take hard courses in this school, I don't have time for anything if I want to get in the best college my parents went to and follow in their footsteps." Jack stood up and walked over to the door, "now leave! I have to study!"

We all filed our way out of his room and he slammed the door shut.

"Well that was..." Annabeth started walking away from the room and walked down the hall before turning right, her face scrunching up, "...something."

"Yeah no kidding," Piper agreed, nodding her head, "how did you even know all of that?" She turned to me.

"I just took a guess, besides, who'd wanna be friends with him?" I replied.

"Okay, we're splitting up," Annabeth started, "Piper and me will be checking the library, Nico and Percy, you guys will be checking the woods."

"Okay, let's go hound," Nico commented, although when he said 'hound' it hadn't sounded so mean like it usually did. That still didn't stop me from rolling my eyes, though.

* * *

 

"We've been searching for thirty minutes and we still haven't found anything," I complained as we continued to walk through the woods.

"I think it's because we're going through the familiar path that everyone seems to take," Nico noted, "maybe...if we just move away from the area everyone takes..." he took a turn and left the trail with me following behind. "I think we should split up," he turned back to me so suddenly, I had to stop abruptly or I'd end up bumping into him, "we need to split up and look around unfamiliar paths where no one would ever venture to."

"What if one of us gets lost?" I asked him.

"We have our watches to communicate, if anything call me, Annabeth, Piper...even Calypso since she's at the main computer."

"Right, got it," I nodded, "I'll call if I find anything."

"Me too," Nico waved me off as he split from me.

I took off in a random direction hoping to be lucky. After ten minutes, it seemed that today I was not all that lucky, I had been searching on the ground for what looked like weathered footprints away from the main trail but no such luck. I was ready to call Nico and call it quits when I heard a rustling of leaves and snapping twigs nearby me.

Carefully, without making any sound I followed the noises, hoping they would lead me somewhere. I walked until I finally heard the sounds stop and I peeked through the bushes, seeing what looked like Jack standing in front of a secret shed. He took out a key from his pocket and unlocked the lock securing the chain in front of the door. The shed was painted a dark brown, and it seemed to be well maintained, not at all dirty or old or rotting. Once Jack unlocked the padlock and took the chains out, he opened the doors and walked in.

I waited for the next fifteen minutes, almost falling asleep before I heard Jack coming back out. He put the chain in place and locked it once more before leaving quickly, almost jogging out of the woods. I stepped out and waited for ten more minutes until I was sure that Jack was truly gone. Then, I took out my wristband and started to mess around with it, see if Calypso had installed any lasers or something.

Out of nowhere, a small ripple passed through the air and I backed up against the door of the shed. The ripple was silent and invisible and seemed to have cut through the air. I pressed that same button once more but aimed it at the chain, sure enough, the chain came undone and clanked loudly on the ground. I slowly opened the door to the shed and made my way in. I looked around for a source of light, with my hands outstretched in front of me, I felt for something that could help me see in the dark shed. Soon, my hand touched a cord and I pulled on it. A dim light bulb came on, lighting up the shed a bit better than before.

I looked around and saw tons of drawings and paintings all either on the floor of the shed or hung up or on an easel. There was even a small sculpture off to the corner of the shed, tucked away. I looked around me, inspecting the paintings closer, noting the incredible detail. Whatever I imagined Jack was hiding in this shed, it wasn't this. This caught me off guard, especially by how good he was. I didn't understand why he would even want to hide these paintings...

I mean, the kid was annoying but even i had to admit that he had skill as an artist. Which bothered me even more considering that he was studying to become a surgeon like his parents.

I couldn't think about this alone, I needed help figuring this out which meant I had to look for the rest of the group, in the meantime I decided to take pictures of everything inside the shed, and the outside of the shed as well.

...

"What's up? What's going on?" Annabeth asked just as she entered through the door of the science room we had been using.

"The hound found something out in the woods, did you get the pictures?" Nico asked her while explaining briefly what was going on.

"I did," the blonde answered.

"I found a shed where I saw Jack going in and coming out of, when I went in there, which by the way, I broke in, technically, I found all of that. Paintings and sculptures and drawings, they were all Jack's works. Which struck me as odd because one, why would he hide his gift and two..." I paused, "uh...I've um, got nothing for two," I saw Nico rolling his eyes but he didn't comment nor call me anything, and I didn't know how to exactly feel about that, "whatever the point is, why would Jack hide that and in the woods no less?"

"Good question," Annabeth started, "I think it's time we gave Jack's parents a visit, I've got their information, they live relatively close to the school."

"So who's going and who's staying?" Piper asked, looking at each of us, although when she turned to me, I just shrugged my shoulders and shook my head.

"I'll be going with Percy once again," Annabeth answered, "and Nico, you're with Piper again. You guys should try to find out more information about Jack, his family at least from the school's perspective, and his hobbies as well as his schedule, I think it'd be a good idea to employ Ben's help. Also, try to look for that shed Percy stumbled across, there might be more to it."

"Got it," Nico nodded before turning to Piper, "let's go." He gave her a side nod as he went out the door.

"Good luck," Piper turned to us before leaving as well.

"Well," Annabeth turned to me and I looked back at her, "you ready?"

"Yeah, let's do it."

When Annabeth had said "relatively close" I thought she had meant a thirty minute drive, at the most an hour, I did not expect it to be an hour and a half, which felt longer considering there was no talking whatsoever in the car, not even the radio was on. At least when Nico and I had to drive somewhere together he put music on, sure it was so he could ignore me and my presence but at least it was something that filled the void. There was no void-filling here.

We drove in silence for an hour and a half, which consisted of Annabeth being totally focused and me being totally uncomfortable.

Before we left, Annabeth had asked for directions to get to Jack's parents' house from Calypso and she showed Annabeth which house to look out for. She didn't share that detail with me though...

Finally, Annabeth parked the car on the corner of the street and she shut it off, before I could even open the door I felt her hand on my forearm.

"Listen, we need a plan," she looked to me, her gray eyes studying me, I almost felt naked in her presence.

"Okay..." I stared back at her.

"What do you suggest we do?" She asked me, once more looking at me like as if she wanted me to give her the answers. All I did was stare right back at her though, and shrugged my shoulders. "Come on Percy, I think you're smarter than that," she said pointedly.

"Wait, you called me _Percy_ instead of hound?" That caught me off guard.

Annabeth sighed heavily, "listen the only reason or _reasons_ Nico even calls you by that is because he has...a...strong sense of...justice..."

"Okay and what does that have to do with him despising my very being?"

"The crime you did, it correlates to something similar that happened to him."

I could feel myself getting just a bit dizzy, I didn't fully understand yet or my brain actually did, it just refused to understand. "Wh-what do you mean?"

"What I mean is that Nico's family was murdered by someone back when he was...maybe in high school? I forget how old he said he was when it happened...either way, his situation is not too different from yours," Annabeth clicked her tongue, "maybe you should try paying attention more and I know it's hard to do when he's too busy being an asshole. Look the whole point is, he thinks you killed your family, and his family was murdered by someone, it's just no one knows who and he's...got a lot of open wounds...and he can hold grudges like no one's business."

Wait a minute, did Annabeth just say that Nico _thinks_ I killed my family?

"...just be a little patient with him okay, I know it's hard to do but like I said he's a really great person once y..."

_Did she really just say that? Did she really say 'think'?_

"...he's being such an asshole but his situation is somewhat the same as yours except of course yours ended with you getting the blame..."

_Holy shit! She said it again! So wait...does this mean that Annabeth thinks I had nothing to do with the murder of my parents? Does this mean that someone other than that Enforcer Marisol believes in me?_

"...he's a grouchy little thing-"

"So wait..." I interrupted, besides I had stopped really listening to her when I noticed what she had said, "so wait, so, you actually believe _I didn't kill_ my parents?" I asked, I was shaking just a bit but it was all nerve-racking.

Annabeth didn't answer, she just studied me for a while not saying anything. "I believe with what I see and when I see you I don't see a killer."

Relief washed over me like a tidal wave and I wanted nothing more than to rejoice but she brought me back to reality again.

"We need to go, we have to talk with the parents of Jack."

"Right," I nodded, "let's go."

Annabeth led the way to this white picket fenced house that was cream on the outside with black windowsills. I don't know what kind of house I was expecting but I know it wasn't one like this. It looked too _homey_ and no offense but surgeons aren't known to be warm. The walkway to the stairs was brick and there were two small steps to take before getting on the porch, which had a few chairs and a small round table. The door that led into the house was black as well and Annabeth rang the doorbell twice before taking a step back.

A few seconds later and the door opened revealing an elderly maid, she looked at the both of us with mild suspicion before Annabeth went ahead and took out her badge, I followed suit.

"Good evening," Annabeth started, "we'd like to speak with Mr. and Mrs. Harper, Jack's parents. Are they in?"

"Yes, yes they are in, right this way I'll let them know you wish to speak with them." The maid answered.

She showed us to the sitting area of the house, as she lead us around, I saw that the interior of the house was white with black wooden floors all throughout. There was very little furniture from what I was seeing so far, only one long table near the entrance and in the sitting room, two couches and an armchair, all leather.

"Wait just a moment please," the old maid spoke as Annabeth and I stood around the room.

"Thank you," Annabeth smiled as she left the room.

Once the maid left, Annabeth and I started to look around the room, I was actually thinking of going into another room but decided against it, it felt like only a couple of seconds before Mr. and Mrs. Harper walked in.

"Hello Enforcers, how are you today?" Mr. Harper asked.

"Hello Mr. Harper," Annabeth walked up to them, "Mrs. Harper, my name is Annabeth and this is my partner Percy, we're here investigating the disappearances of the students at your son's, Jack, school. I'm assuming you know?"

"Yes, we have heard about that, we just found out recently," Mrs. Harper chirped, "we've been a bit busy so we haven't really kept as up to date with the school as my husband and I would have liked."

"That's fine," Annabeth continued, "that's not the reason of why we're here, we were questioning the students and we had a moment to speak with your son."

"And what does Jack have to do with any of this?" Mr. Harper asked, but he seemed more guarded and protective than before.

"Annabeth never mentioned he was a part of anything," I finally spoke up, replying smoothly, "we only came to your home to inquire a bit more about him, he seems to be fairly popular among the students," I continued, and once I mentioned the word 'popular' it was like Mr and Mrs Harper shined a bit with pride, "as were the other students who went missing," I had no idea where I was going with this but I know it was going somewhere, "and my partner, Annabeth and I just came by to ask you some questions about Jack, to make sure nothing happens to him at all."

I looked to the both of them before turning to Annabeth who was a bit wide-eyed, "I mean, all we're doing is looking out for his well-being," I lied easily.

"Do you think something is going to happen to Jack?" Mrs. Harper uttered, she looked to her husband and they had a silent conversation in five seconds before Mr. Harper let out a small sigh.

"Okay, we'll answer some of your questions," he grunted before sitting down on the couch next to his wife.

Annabeth and I sat opposite and before she started her questions, we made eye contact and I swear she smirked at me, her eyes twinkling with something and in that moment, I thought she was kind of pretty.

"Right," Annabeth picked up where I left off, "now Jack is very studious and very focused on academics, but we never did find out what his hobbies are, would you mind filling us in?"

"Jack's hobbies are to study and do homework," Mr. Harper answered as if it were the most obvious answer ever.

"But those aren't exactly hobbies, I mean, everyone studies," Annabeth pointed out, "I mean sure, some people might like it but it's not really a hobby it's something you just do..."

"Well Jack did do something with art, you know drawing and the like," Mrs. Harper confessed.

"Really?" I spoke up, "he didn't really seem like the type to be creative or artistic, like with some people you can just tell, they think somewhat differently, their minds work in different ways but Jack seems more..."

"Logical," Mr. Harper stepped in, "that's because we got rid of _that hobby_."

"Right," Annabeth looked at both Mr and Mrs Harper before turning to me, "I think it's time to go Percy, we need to get back."

"Yes, right, we should get going," I started to make my way out.

"Thank you, again, Mr and Mrs Harper," Annabeth said before leaving right behind me.

* * *

 

_Nico_

"Ben," Piper called out to the curly haired cretin.

So I didn't like him, sue me for all I care!

"Hm? Oh, hi Piper, hello Nico," He looked to Piper, then to me and then back at Piper, "what can I help you guys with?"

I rolled my eyes, I didn't know why but for some reason I couldn't stand Ben despite the fact that he never did anything to me.

Maybe it was because he knew the hound way before the hound became an Enforcer?

Maybe it was the way he looked at the hound with something akin to adoration?

Maybe it wa-

"Nico, come on," Piper took me out of my haze, "Ben said he can cover for us if the headmaster starts to ask where we are while we look through the woods."

"Yeah, for some reason, the headmaster is a bit particular about who can go where in the woods of the school," Ben explained.

"Why's that?" I asked him.

"Not sure why, he just is..."

That struck me as odd, and when I looked over at Piper I could tell she was thinking the same thing.

"Piper, we might need to split up," I told her.

"If you're thinking what I'm thinking," she began, "then I think we should as well."

"I'll look through the woods for Jack's shed, Ben, you'll need to help Piper look through old school records and yearbooks."

"Why?" Ben asked, confusion very clear on his stupid handsome face, yeah that's right, he might get on my nerves but he was good-looking. "I don't understand what's going on."

"There's something up, I don't know what it is but we'll find out, Piper keep me on your watch at all times, okay?"

"Got it." She nodded her head and then turned towards Ben, "lead the way."

...

_"Okay,"_ I heard Piper speak through my earbuds, _"right now we've found some old yearbooks and some old records of the students who used to attend, but why exactly did you want to focus on Headmaster Jefferson and the Harpers?"_

"Because, I believe there's some form of connection," I answered while walking further into the woods, "I can't believe I didn't think to ask the hound where he found the shed."

_"Well, we pulled up every Harper who entered the school, before Jack it was his father, Roy Harper, before Roy it was Richard Harper, before Richard it was Dick Harper and so on and so forth..."_ Piper paused, _"man, there's gotta be generation after generation of Harpers who went to this school..."_

"Good, now look at the yearbooks, look for the one as far back as it goes and look up each Harper boy that came through the school."

_"Okay, the oldest one goes back to 20xx,"_ Piper informed, _"so it's more than seventy years ago..."_

"I think I see something..." I spoke as I approached what I hoped would be the shed, it was getting dark out making it extremely difficult to see.

_"I think I found a Harper..."_ I barely heard Piper say as I finally got to the door of the shed, I saw that the lock had been broken by the hound no less but at least it made things easier for me.

I walked inside and shined the light from watch around the dark storage. I saw exactly what the hound described, paintings and little sculptures, drawings...I walked on ahead, the shed didn't look too big, I was pretty sure this was all that kid Jack was hiding. I walked further in, trying to get a closer look at one of the small sculptures when I felt my left foot sink a bit lower than my right foot. I shined the light from my watch down and saw that one of the tiles under me was a bit lower than the other ones.

_"...ooks like Gerald Harper liked to play sports a lot..."_

I slowly took my foot off the tile and immediately the two tiles next the one I stepped on shifted away and revealed a staircase leading down.

_"...holy shit..."_ Piper gasped, and I couldn't help but think holy shit was right. _"...t-t-the headmaster!"_

"What?" I asked, confused as I made my way down the stairs, "what's wrong with headmaster Jefferson?"

_"Th-the...he-he...he's in this yearbook dated back to 20xx! He was...was known back then as Headmaster Richmond...and he's younger...this yearbook is almost a hundred years old I think...how can this man live for so long?"_

"How do you know it's him?" I asked Piper as I continued going down the stairs, "I mean the guy in the yearbook looks younger."

_"Because I remember when me and Annabeth were investigating in the school while you and Percy searched outside, we ran into him and he invited us back into his office, while there, Annabeth was asking all the questions. I happened to see a photo of a young guy there and I asked Jefferson who that person was, he answered it was him back when he was younger."_

"That's...weird..maybe it's just a relative or something, like his father..."

_"Now that I think about it...did you notice if there any old teachers at this school, teachers who have been here for years, and I mean like_ years _,_ _like they have been there a long time..."_

"No...I didn't actually..." I answered slowly, because I was starting to get a little freaked out not to mention I was going down these endless stairs.

_"I'm checking the other yearbooks now with Ben...wait Ben found something...it's him again but under another name and he looks a bit older than the last picture and..."_ Piper paused for a second before she came back, _"you know what I've noticed...every single Harper kid has taken a picture with Jefferson...it's-it's consistent..."_

Finally, I get to the bottom of the long winding staircase and shine my light around, within a few seconds of my entering, the room lights up by itself, some areas were still dark though.

_"Oh god, Nico, every single Harper is seen photographed with Jefferson! Jefferson looks the same but then every few years or so he changes, he keeps getting older but it takes a long time before it actually happens, I think this yearbo-"_

"Piper?" I call to her, I had heard something in the background that made me worry.

_"I have to go-we...we have to go..."_

"Piper? What's wrong?"

_CLICK!_

That's all I hear before Piper gets cut off from me.

I walk on further into the room, at first I see nothing until I come closer to...what looks like a sculpture? It looks different than the ones from upstairs, inside the shed. The color looked different, looking more reddish-pinkish, the ones upstairs were all white.

Something about them threw me off, like as if something were wrong about them but they looked as normal as they could be...

I walked over to another one on display, it looked the same as the other one, even the feeling of something being wrong with it was the same, the shape was different but that was it. I was about to walk to the next when something caught my eye.

Off to the side, hidden away was what looked like an operating table, and right next to the table was equipment. I walked towards the table to get a better look and saw there were scalpels, tongs, forceps, a bone saw...among other things. Once I was close enough to the operating table, a smell made itself noticeable. It smelled like death, as if meat were rotting away. The smell was hidden well enough that you couldn't notice it at first, but from the looks of it, it smelled as if it were coming from this bin that was somewhat close to the table and tools. God, it was putrid, I covered my mouth and nose with my shirt.

I walked to the bin and prepared myself for the worst, so far the operating table and tools were weird enough, but that still didn't mean anything, for all I know, Jack could have a hobby...that probably involved killing animals...which actually did not at all sit me well with me.

I opened the lid to the bin, the smell that came out almost made me vomit. Quickly shutting it, I stepped back, gagging and coughing; once I composed myself I went back to the bin, I covered my mouth and nose this time with a washcloth I found and opened the bin once more.

I looked inside, my eyes watering a bit, but it was too dark to make anything out. So I turned on the light from my watch, and when I did, I somewhat wished I didn't. I backed away, disgusted and close to vomiting once more.

I walked back over to the sculptures, and finally had a real look at them.

Finally it clicked in my head...

The pinkish-reddish color to them...

The operating table...

The horrible smell...

What was inside the bin...the...

The missing boys...

I looked back to the last sculpture that was all the way in the back, I hadn't even bothered to look at it. That one had brown hair, just the same as one of the missing students.

I quickly took pictures of everything in the room before I bolted out of there. I was getting more than creeped out as it was, and the realization of what I had just figured out freaked me out even more. When I got out of the shed, it was dark, and I couldn't see very well. It didn't matter to me, I ran out of there as fast as I could, tripping over a few branches, running into trees, on my way out.

I had to tell the others, I thought to myself while my mind came up with hundreds of theories.

* * *

 

I finally got to the front of the school just as I saw Piper making her way over to Annabeth and the dog. I ran towards them, sweating and somewhat out of breath. Bumping into those trees wasn't fun and definitely didn't help me conserve my energy. I stopped to catch my breath once I reached them, my mind still racing.

"Nico, what's wrong?" Annabeth asked me.

"What did you find out?" I asked her, somewhat still out of breath.

"Nothing except Jake likes art, but other than that nothing..." Annabeth answered.

"And that his parents and strict and frickin' weird..." the hound mumbled before Annabeth shushed him.

"I found out headmaster Jefferson is an immortal," Piper announced.

_"What?"_ Annabeth looked at her like she was crazy, which, in Annabeth's defense, was the right thing to do.

"I looked through yearbooks dating back seventy years from now! I mean the whole immortal thing is just a theory of course, but still," Piper told us, "it was me and Ben-"

"Wait, _Ben_ was there?" The hound cut in.

"Yes, now listen, we we-"

"Was he hurt?" The dog kept interrupting Piper.

"No, now _listen!_ " Piper hissed, "Jefferson has been here, from the looks of it for more than seventy years."

"But how is that possible when Attica has been here for only thirty years?" I looked at her.

"There were some yearbooks that dated back further than that, and the schools were from the U.S., which means he has been the "same age" for a very long time. Not to mention Ben said something about teachers never being there for that long...I mean come on, teachers are always the ones who stay at a school for as long as possible how can that be that they don't stay there that long."

"Do you have the yearbooks with you?" Annabeth asked, she had this sort of gleam in her eye, the kind she gets when she knows she's close to figuring out what's going on.

"No," Piper sighed, "I was talking to Nico and looking at the yearbooks when Ben, who was the lookout pointed out that Jefferson was coming. I had to put everything away, almost didn't make it..."

"That reminds me," Annabeth said, looking towards me, "what were you doing?"

"I was looking for the shed the dog mentioned. I went to go check it out," I answered.

"And what did you find?"

"I found a room hidden underneath the shed, and when I went down, I found more sculptures..."

"Great, more art, that doesn't necessarily help us," the hound grumbled.

"I also found an operating table and surgical tools," I kept on, rolling my eyes at his comment, "not to mention, there was a horrible smell coming from this bin, it smelled like death."

"Oh ew," Piper made a face.

"I came up with a theory..." I looked at Annabeth who was looking back at me, "I think we need to talk to Jack."

* * *

 

_Percy_

I had absolutely no idea what was going to happen but I had a feeling that something was going to go down. It especially didn't help that Annabeth didn't even want to talk about what to do next, she just wanted to act, which, in the few hours that I spent with Annabeth, wasn't like her.

We went up to where Jack was, Ben had kept an eye on his movements and told us where he had been the last two hours. He also offered to keep an eye out for headmaster Jefferson in case he came along.

We walked inside the library and split off from each other to find Jack, which actually wasn't that hard. We found him sitting by himself in the far end of the library on a table with his books laid out. He looked like a normal kid, a kid whose only concern was school.

Annabeth walked up to him first, sitting down right in front of him before we joined her, boxing him in.

He looked up at all of us, glaring at us before he cleared his throat and shut his books.

"What can I help you with _now?_ " He asked, glaring at Nico especially.

"We'd like to ask you some questions," Nico grit out.

"So, how close is your relationship with headmaster Jefferson?" Annabeth asked straight away, no hesitation at all.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Jack looked confused, it had me somewhat believing him.

"Headmaster Jefferson seems to have very special relationships with all of the Harper's that seem to come through this school..." Annabeth pressed on, "so why don't you tell us why the headmaster is so _close_ to you, hm?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about...now leave me alone, or else I'll tell the headmaster," Jack scowled.

"Oh yeah, do it," Piper cut in, "and I'm sure he'll listen to you considering the fact that he's so close to your family."

"Just answer the damn question Harper," Nico demanded impatiently.

"I don't even know what you guys are talking about?!"

"We're talking about the fact that the headmaster doesn't seem to age, not one bit. We're talking about the fact that Jefferson is so freaking close to your damn family. We're talking about the missing kids at this school and how _exactly_ they went missing when security is so tight around here," Nico practically snarled, it made the hair in the back of my neck stand on end.

"Or about the fact that you don't really _want_ to be a surgeon, you want to be an artist, your parents made that choice for you a long time ago and because you have to be the good son, you have to follow in your family's footsteps, you have to do as you're told, you were made to give up on art. Because of that, I bet you felt angry and spiteful, so you took out your anger on the students here," Annabeth looked Jack straight in the eyes, with Jack looking as though he were going to be sick.

"I didn't..." Jack mumbled, his bravado long gone.

"Then why the hell is there a secret room under a tool shed in the middle of the woods where there are sculptures made from the bodies of the missing students?!" Nico snapped, with Jack looking directly at Nico, he had flinched when Nico had said that. There was no denying it now. They knew it was him. They knew he had killed the missing kids.

"You murdered them Jack and used them to make _art,_ " Piper stated, looking sick.

"Yeah, I did." Jack confessed, "and do you wanna know why?"

None of us had any idea how to react. We had never heard someone confess that they had done it. We had never been this close.

"Because everyone, _everyone_ always expects me to do better, they expect me to pave the way for how a student should act, expect _me_ to be the damn _idol_ they think they have. They expect me to be fucking _perfect!_ But I'm not!" Jack yelled, standing up and pacing back and forth. "I gave up the only thing that I loved! I gave up art! Because my parents decided to create my future for me without me even having a say!"

"I can't act out in class, I can't miss a day of school even if I'm sick, I don't have any friends! Just people who are either scared of me or follow me thinking I'm this perfect person who has everything I could want! I can't do any wrong!" he shouted, pounding his fist on a table, "I was going crazy in here, I was on the brink of snapping and just going on a damn rampage until..."

"Until what?" Annabeth asked.

"Until _he_ came along and told me he could make all of my dreams come true."

"What did you even want?" Piper questioned, "what exactly did you want to do?"

"I hadn't really been able to express myself openly, except in that shed that headmaster Jefferson gave me, ever since my parents "forbade" me from doing art anymore, I've been limited and even then in that shed it wasn't enough, I was getting stuck, I wasn't getting inspired, not the way I used to before. I had to stop for some time and when I went back to it, I was just...blocked...and I tried to look for inspiration anywhere in anything but..." Jack trailed off, looking distant.

"But?" I asked, for some reason I was desperate to know, in the last few cases I had had, I had never been close to talking with the people who came in contact with this mystery man that seemed to evade us, and now, I was so close I could almost taste it.

"But it nothing worked, until..." Jack paused, contemplating on what to say next, "until, let's call _him Mr. C,_ because he made me see a different way to get inspired, it wasn't until Mr. C came along and opened my eyes to the possibilities."

"Possibilities," Annabeth stated, her gray eyes boring into him.

"I had so many people idolizing me, I was sure not one of them would protest to being...my muse, but see, Mr. C wanted me to use the other popular boys because he said it would attract attention, he was right, and I did end up finding my step again, my art flourished as I'm sure you've seen."

"Ugh, you're sick," Nico glared at him.

"Maybe," Jack said, walking away from us and towards the windows, "I think I've done all the talking I can, he's allowed me to say this much, and I'm not sure why..."

"What are you talking about?" I asked, "and Mr. C, what's his real name? How does he look like?"

"I'm afraid that's all you're getting out of me," was the last thing Jack said before he fell on the floor, his whole body convulsing.

"I'm calling for backup," Annabeth said as she called Calypso through her wristband.

The helicopter came as fast as possible and took off with Jack to the nearest hospital which wasn't too far from here. From what Piper and Nico found, we went to question headmaster Jefferson next but he was nowhere to be found, although from the looks of his room off campus, it had looked like he had fled we placed a warrant out for his arrest to the enforcers and to the public. We couldn't do much about it except warn the school, I guess we'd never find out why or how it was that he aged so little in so much time. The missing children were given proper burial, well from what could have been recovered and put back together from Jack's "sculptures", the parents were a wreck, all of them.

Jack parents were a mess too, but still somewhat put together while we interrogated them again and gave them a summons for what Jack had done, but he had been taken to the hospital too late, the doctors said that blood was cut off from the brain for too long putting him in a coma and they believe Jack will never wake up. His parents are debating whether or not to unplug him. The grand court of Attica have also summoned Jack's father for his involvement with headmaster Jefferson.

I said goodbye to Ben one final time, and he surprised me by giving me a kiss on the lips, and telling me not to forget him.

I had loved Ben, I had also loved Danny, and they both still haunted me in my sleep, but now, after making peace with Ben, I'll only have one nightmare to live through. Seeing Ben again, lifted a little weight off my chest, I felt a bit easier now. I knew I didn't love him and I also knew Ben would find someone someday to complete him.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so there you have it, oh man, this one chapter took so long to write and it so much out of me. The number of times I revisited this and redited this, it was insane and for like a year too.
> 
> So the reason this took so long to finally be updated is because I got a new job as a bank teller, and I was also working at the movie theater. So I worked early mornings and late nights for a couple of months and that took a lot of energy out of me. Not to mention I tried juggling both of my jobs with two completely different work schedules and my relationship (we've made a year and three months! I'm the happiest I've ever been) and it was hard because I felt myself somewhat being stretched too thin. Then, my supervisor quit a couple of months into my new job and I had to fill in her position, since I was already learning it anyway to maybe move up. Still haven't moved up yet I still do her position. After I quit my old job, I tried coming back to this story but for some reason I wasn't getting inspired and I realized that I had writer's block, I tried working on my other stories, heck I even tried doing a new one, it was gonna be short but nothing came to.
> 
> Every time I tried to write this chapter I was never satisfied with it, I could never get out more than a few sentences. Until finally, for some reason, today I had the fire of a thousand suns and finished the chapter.
> 
> So I hope you all can forgive me for holding so long, on all of my stories, updates will be made on them soon-ish, but I really hope you enjoyed this very lengthy chapter and hope you guys haven't forgotten me. Thank you for reading.


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